Mike Farrell. Phil Donahue. Elvis Costello. Arlo Guthrie. Danny Glover. Ani DiFranco. Martin Sheen. These are just a few of the celebrities who openly oppose the death penalty.
Even my own personal hero, Dave Matthews, has spoken out on the issue.
Me? Well, I’m not here to discuss my views on the death penalty. I’m not even up to speed on the death penalty laws throughout America. Actually, before I Googled the information, I was only a hundred percent sure about two things regarding death penalty laws: My own state doesn’t have the death penalty, and Texas does.
What I am here to discuss is an ongoing death penalty debate in Texas right now involving a man named Andre Thomas who murdered his wife and her two children in 2004. You’d think, with all the news stories surrounding the death penalty (some involving Texas, and some not), the story wouldn’t have stuck out too much for me. Yet, when I read about how Thomas plucked each of his eyes from its socket (one at his trial, and one later on while he sat on death row), actually ate one of them, and is still being considered “sane,” I had to raise an eyebrow.
Thomas is “clearly ‘crazy,’ ” a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals wrote in a concurring denial of his appeal last month, “but he is also ’sane’ under Texas law.”
(”Clearly crazy”? Really? That’s the kind of stuff judges include in appeal denials? And here I thought there was some kind of official standard or something.)
It’s the “under Texas law” part that has mental health advocates, lawyers, and university professors really bent out of shape right now.
“We need to change the law,” said Brian Shannon, a Texas Tech law professor, because a mentally ill person may know their conduct is wrong but be unable to fully comprehend the situation because the illness affects his “emotional state and thinking and reasoning ability.”
Whether or not the state’s death penalty law needs some tweaking, some folks claim Andre’s mental health was worsened by drinking and drug use and “[u]nder Texas law if the illness is caused or worsened by ‘voluntary intoxication’ such as drug or alcohol abuse, ‘you don’t get to claim insanity.’”
I wonder how self medication and dual diagnosis falls into this, if at all?
Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be too much coverage of this issue, which is also kind of surprising. A man who cuts out the hearts of his family, turns himself in to the police and claims God told him to commit the murders, and then plucks out his eyes and eats one of them is deemed mentally fit? And not many people - if any - outside of Texas are talking about it?
My reason for finding out about celebrities who oppose the death penalty was pure curiosity. I’m not defending Andre Thomas - I’m not stating he is or isn’t sane, or that he should or shouldn’t be given the death penalty - but I am wondering how much coverage this situation might get if one of these celebrities who oppose the death penalty picked up on it.
Would that bring enough attention to prompt lawmakers to rewrite the state’s death penalty law? On that note, should the state’s death penalty law be rewritten? What do you think?
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Nothing surprises me about Texas “justice”.
After all, this is the state that upheld a death penalty judgment against a man whose lawyer showed up to court drunk and slept through parts of the trial. The jurors said they could actually hear the lawyer snoring. The case had to go all the way up to the SCOTUS before this travesty was reversed and sent back for a new “trial”.
So, the reason no one has heard of the case you mention is that those of us in the legal community are simply inured to what comes out of Texas> There is nothing anyone can do about it, except to stay the hell out of there.
If you don’t like Texas justice, you don’t have to live here.
We, the citizens of this great State, find it a wonderful place to live in part because we’re surrounded by people whose morality and ethics fairly closely mirror our own.
That’s what is meant by “community”. It’s why we have different standards of conduct in different parts of the country. It’s how we find a reasonably comfortable place to live despite being surrounded by radical liberalism and anti-US sentiment.
I could care less what any Hollywood celebrity thinks of the death penalty. They have their own state to look after. Such as it is.
Did you say murdered? Was that the verdict? Or, was that an assumption?
I have to comment about the death penalty. First, I was once a hard core for the death penalty person. That changed because of events in the City I live. There was evidence of frame ups. So, I am sorry after seeing that, I could not vote for the death penalty knowing that there was the slight chance of a frame up. And, by the way the events in my City were not just a few.
You have to ask yourself what if any benefits are there to the death penalty.
Murder and sexual assault rates are actually higher in states that have the death penalty. So it is not useful as a crime prevention tool.
Victims do not grieve any less after witnessing or hearing of the offenders death. In fact they are often re traumatized.
Those on death row are not those who have committed the most henous of crimes, but those who can least afford to defend themselves on trial. Those people are usually black and incredibly poor. Those on death row are often not those who pulled the trigger or stabbed the victim, but are accomplises who were not able to do a deal.
Most people like Andre’ who had very little good support mechanims for serious mental health issues are using drugs and alcohol to cope. No different to those who don’t have serious mental health issues. The drugs and alcohol would have worsened his condition, but he didn’t choose to be mentally ill.
I am not saying he is not guilty. But a better law, says he is guilty but insane, the community needs protection from him and he needs to be protected from himself.
What benefit does the community receive from putting him to death. None, because there is another Andre’ waiting just around the corner. The death penalty is costly and pointless.
@ Forensic - I had to chime back in to let you know I thoroughly enjoyed your comment and to thank you for taking the time to leave it. Especially noteworthy:
I am not saying he is not guilty. But a better law, says he is guilty but insane, the community needs protection from him and he needs to be protected from himself.
AND WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HIM GETTING THE DEATH PENALTY? HE KILLED 3 PEOPLE, EXCUSE ME- 1 PERSON AND 2 BABIES. HE TOOK THEIR HEARTS OUT. WHO CARES WHAT HE DOES TO HIMSELF? HE DOESN’T DESERVE THAT? AND SO WHAT IF HE GETS THE DEATH PENALTY. WE KNOW HE’S GUILTY. WHY WASTE TIME, ENERGY, AND EFFORT TO KEEP HIM ALIVE? WHAT ABOUT WHAT HE DID? EVERYONE SEEMS TO FORGET THE VICTIMS!!!! HOW DOES THE KILLER BECOME THE VICTIM. YEAH- HE’S CRAZY- SO WHAT!!!! I SAY SET A DATE AND GET IT THE HELL OVER WITH!!!!
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