A Texas man who unsuccessfully challenged the safety of the state’s lethal injection drugs and raised questions about evidence used to persuade a jury to sentence him to death for killing an elderly woman decades ago was executed late Tuesday.
Jedidiah Murphy, 48, was pronounced dead after an injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the October 2000 fatal shooting of 80-year-old Bertie Lee Cunningham of the Dallas suburb of Garland. Cunningham was killed during a carjacking.
“To the family of the victim, I sincerely apologize for all of it,” Murphy said while strapped to a gurney in the Texas death chamber and after a Christian pastor, his right hand on Murphy’s chest, prayed for the victim’s family, Murphy’s family and friends and the inmate.
“I hope this helps, if possible, give you closure,” Murphy said.
Yes, I understand: hindsight is 20/20. But I object to this notion that a person is “a different person” simply because they’ve grown and matured and wouldn’t make the same decision anymore. They only got to have that growth because no one murdered them. They are still responsible for their past actions, and I’m sure you realize that. I’m a therapist–I help people make better decisions in their lives, and I’ve helped criminals and would-be criminals alike. I’m all for more therapy for at-risk people early in their lives, as well as more humane prison systems that reduce recidivism through in-prison treatment and personal development; but I still think people need to be held accountable for their misdeeds and punished accordingly. One can acknowledge a person’s growth and maturation without forgiving them for their past crimes.
If we’re on the same page with all that, great. I don’t mean to stoke an illusory disagreement.
I think we’re saying a similar thing, your first reply was a bit flippant is all. I didn’t mean to give the impression that people shouldn’t be punished after years of growth, it was just a comment on how long it can take to give the final punishment, seems a bit cruel.
Fair enough. Your first comment seemed like it was implying that the guy shouldn’t receive said final punishment simply because he’d matured by that point. As for the length of time it takes to hand down a sentence of execution…I know what you mean when you say it seems cruel, but for reasons I think are pretty obvious, I don’t feel bad for the guy. The longer it takes, the more of his life he can at least live, if not enjoy. Also, when the sentence is death, I’m kind of glad it takes such a laborious process to implement–we shouldn’t be executing people unless there’s a clear consensus among several judges that it’s the appropriate sentence. As for the death penalty itself, I have mixed feelings.