Yep. Great, big, swingin' brass ones. He walks more bow-legged than a West Texas goatroper. He has to wheel them around in a wheelbarrow. You can bet that he packs heat wherever he goes after this ruling. Who'da thunk that there was a sane, educated judge in Tejas?

You get born,
You go die,
And in between you can have a gun if you want one."

Actual statment made on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives.

...poor judge.

Unconstitutional, inhumane, not a fucking deterrent at all, as well as embarrassingly and inexplicably racially unequal, the death penalty is nothing but an orgasm for unforgiving sick fucks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=RVrxddbiow4

I kind of think that in the natural order of things if America were fully developed then the only thing that can happen next is its inevitable downfall. I also think if current affairs in America represent fully developed, then humans really have stumbled and fallen quite a degree because America is one sick, fucked up place.

of the Supreme Court of the United States? JUDICIAL ACTIVISM!!!

Willingham was a low life scum who was mean to his Missus and suggested she not have no more babies.

Cruel and unusual punishment would be torture

Or like in 18th century courts hanging a highwayman who may not h ave killed anyone yet, to be an example of others

Or burning someone alive or some other such method.

In Texas, we actually have two Supreme Courts, the Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals. The Supreme Court is for Civil matters only. Death Penalty cases get fast-tracked to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The governor has no power pardon or reprieve someone condemned to death, without the state Board for Pardon and Parole recommendation. But this is an appointed body. I'm not sure if the governor can request they consider a prisoner, or whether they're stuck with predecessor's choices to the board, or can replace them at will. At any case, sometimes it seems like a game of blaming each other.

There is no appeal once a death penalty is carried out.

to life as Governor, and that was Henry Lee Lucas, his soul mate

.

And that was at Yale.

One of the comments I read at the Chronicle was quite certain that because she could tats in the judge's photo, he was a thug only interested in saving his thug buddies. I would have laughed if the tone of the comment hadn't been so menacing.

These are actual human beings? People who get out of bed and breathe in and out all day? Hard to believe.

I lived there (Austin) for twenty seven years. And I was seriously offended. As a liberal/atheist, I was considered a lower form of life than an old school Stalinist.

I have two favors to ask of you: instead of being offended by those who find Texans a disgusting bunch of people, why don't you challenge those who've trashed your reputation instead. This would be a far more productive endeavor.

Oh, the other favor: assuming you are a "moderate christian"... instead of challenging nasty atheists like myself, why don't you challenge the religious extremists in your own neck of the woods. They're the ones who've dragged you down -- not me.

Finally, Texans are not responsible for all of the worlds evils. Just some of them. If they would take the time to figure out which ones they are responsible for, it would be a very positive step indeed, and go a long way towards your... um... rehabilitation in the arena of world public opinion. (Of course, you would have to give a shit, first.)

Texas doesn't represent Houston any more than Bush represented the entire country for eight years.

By the same token, Houston doesn't represent Texas. Anymore than Austin does.

secede?

Including the pig ignorance. But some of us survive. Although I enjoyed living elsewhere a great deal. It's an okay place whn it's somewhat blue, but it can be a mean red. Honestly, the place is TOO big with a lot of sprawl or empty blah nothing inbetween towns/cities for the most part.

It's not quite the same.

Tucker "found god" after she committed mass murder.

George Bu**sh** "found god" years before he murdered 147 in Texas, let alone the hundred thousand Iraqis and Afghans.

No, the judge said that the PROCEDURE used to bring death penalty cases is unconstitutional. He never said a word about the death penalty itself.

As for the rest, you must be talking Texas state constitution because the only crimes mentioned by the US Constitution are treason, counterfeiting, and piracy. And of those, treason is the only crime that has its minimum standard set in the Constitution itself, in Article 3, Section 3.

...Death Penalty costs more than life imprisonment, first off.

Revenge killing makes us no more than barbaric savages. I believe that being as permissive as you seem to be about institutionalized revenge killing actually leads to a more culturally acceptable environment of killing itself. Countries that rid themselves of the death penalty rather quickly see a decrease in what we would consider capital crime. Beside all of that, it's an actual issue of whether the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment. I believe that it does, and the judge in question thinks the argument has at least reviewable merit, concerning the procedures used in Texas to push through convictions that would hold water in no other state in the country, and few other countries outside of North Korea.

I believe that no one ever deserves to die, no matter what. You are entitled to your own opinion. But don't use emotion to argue constitutionality.

going for appeal after endless appeal? As stated below, the death penalty DOES cost more than life imprisonment odd as that may sound. However, it does take a very special kind of person to forgive someone of murder. I can honestly say, if I was personally involved with the victim or the killer, I'm not sure how I'd feel. But don't use the economic factor as an excuse.