Texas justice through German eyes: horrifying
Oct 4th, 2007 by Paul Moor
Let no one still mired out of date in world history of half a century or so ago come at me with “Hmphhh . . . they should talk!” I hope the word has finally got around that the Germany I’ve adopted as my own country today glories in one of the most vital and conscientiously functioning democracies you can find anywhere.
It also rejoices in the best weekly newsmagazine to come to my attention, in any country, in any language, ever: the Hamburg-Based Der Spiegel. When I got home tonight, its Anglophone version ambushed me with an especially horrifying story from my native state, Texas, for which I still and always will have many fond nostalgic memories - although on occasions like this it does give me serious pause, in this instance about what actually boils down to something close to murder by callous bureaucracy - and with its hapless victim yet another of the numerous black citizens who’ve breathed their last in Texas prisons. (Post-war Germany, f.y.i., put an end to the practice of capital punishment the Nazis had made part and parcel of Hitler’s Third Reich from 1933 until World War II ended it in 1945.)
Now let me turn you over to the Spiegel story I found awaiting me tonight, quoting the daily American-Statesman in the state capital Austin:
DID UNBUDGING TEXAS BUREAUCRATS KILL A MAN?
Court Told Condemned Man: Sorry, We’re Closing
The state of Texas executed death-row inmate Michael Richard because the court responsible for his sentence was unwilling to remain open an additional twenty minutes to receive a petition for a stay on his execution. Business hours were to be respected, and Richard was killed, on schedule, by lethal injection.
AP
Death row inmate Michael Richard was executed by lethal injection in Texas on Sept. 25, 2007.
When it comes to Texas justice, twenty minutes could mean the difference between life and death. The Austin-American Statesman newspaper reported this week that the state executed death-row inmate Michael Richard on Sept. 25 — because bureaucrats couldn’t be bothered to wait twenty minutes to receive his lawyers’ appeal for a stay.
According to the newspaper, when the lawyers explained to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals at 4:50 p.m. that their computer had crashed and they needed extra time, they were told: “We’re closing at five.”
You can read the unabridged account by clicking here.
