Todd Willingham reportedly Belonephobic!

I scanned my fellow class members’ blogs for a topic to respond to. I chose class blogger Misty who gave one side of the death penalty http://www.01281985.blogspot.com/ . The D.P. is a hot button topic for sure, right up there with abortion, racism, Darwin’s theory, etc.. . People are either for it or against it. I have no desire to change someone’s mind on this subject any more than my mind can be changed.

The topic was about the State executing innocent people and she references Todd Willingham, a Texas man executed for frying his three children in a house fire. I don’t want to beat this case to death (no pun intended), but for every anti-death penalty website found, there is an equal and opposite pro-death penalty to counteract it. The information I read http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/willingham899.htm shows he did it. Was he innocent? I don’t know, but at his execution, he repeatedly told his ex-wife who was present “I hope you rot in Hell, Bitch”. Willingham’s compassion for a grieving mother will be sorely missed along with his obvious potential as a productive human being. The truth is that Willingham was a repeat violent offender, his life littered with felony and misdemeanor convictions. I saw some comments on Misty’s blog that mentioned racism and wrongful convictions. For a proper perspective on racism, I refer you to the FBI crime statistics website http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/data/table_43.html and pay special attention to the column that reports convictions by race. I know I know, the site is run by racist cops, blah, blah, blah. What I’m saying is that Texas death row is not filled with Magna Cum Laudes, philanthropists or guys working on how to split the atom. It’s filled with repeat offenders of All races who are career criminals. It’s hard to feel for them.

One other thing: Willingham’s own defense attorney agreed that his client was guilty and that Willingham should have been executed!!!! http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/2009/12/04/1204willingham.html. He waited to until after they juiced him to say anything. Perhaps this will end any other arguments about this particular case.

Misty reports there were 130 wrongful D.P. convictions. I agree with her that even one wrongful conviction is too many. However, 130 wrongful convictions from 35 States multiplied by the length of time the D.P. has been in place. It’s actually an outstanding percentage rate of good convictions.

The Texas death penalty serves a purpose. It reduces the crime rate. It means the executed ends his life of crime forever and can no longer rape, murder, or rob another person. Three quarters of this country also believe it’s a good idea since there are only 15 states that do not have a death penalty statute http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/states-and-without-death-penalty. If there was a real push to abolish the D.P. in Texas, it would have been done by now. All it takes is a legislative act to repeal it, so an interested person or coalition could go through their state rep or Senator to get the process started. Good luck with that. If the death penalty really bothers someone in Texas, maybe they should move to another state. Remember, this is the state where folks are allowed to carry loaded shotguns and rifles in their trucks. The D.P. won’t be going away in Texas. Ever.