The sovereign state of Texas has killed another human being.
This is not surprising. Their former governor, George W. Bush, killed more prisoners on death row than had any governor before him, at least that we know about.
Nothing about the situation regarding the execution in Texas of a retarded man, Milton Mathis, is surprising. One need read no farther than this paragraph from today's Huffington Post story about the execution:
A spokeswoman for Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican who is weighing a run for the presidency, said the governor could not offer clemency or a reprieve in the case without a positive recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which voted on Monday to reject a reprieve for Mr. Mathis. Members of the board are appointed by the governor.Note well: Members of the board are appointed by the governor. If a governor doesn't want a parole board ever to recommend leniency, all he or she has to do is to be sure to appoint people to that board who can be predicted (or otherwise) never to recommend leniency via life in prison and certainly never clemency, and always to opt for the terminal solution.
This is not a case merely of the fox guarding the hen house. It is a case of the fox getting the contract to design the hen house, then building the hen house, employing the guards for the hen house who are chosen only from fox applicants, and telling the world that the hen house is safe. And it is. For anything except hens.
Milton Mathis, Rest In Peace in a heaven far, far from Texas.
