William Garner is dead.
He was murdered this morning by the State of Ohio.
Shortly before the killing, Tim Young, the Ohio Public Defender, sent this statement to the staff of his office and the members of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. I reprint it here with his permission.
Today Ohio will kill William Garner. This will be Ohio's 13th execution since 2008. There have been two grants of clemency and two stays, including one botched execution during the same period for a total of 17 scheduled executions in that short time - second only to Texas. During this period Ohio has moved to a one drug protocol and has already scheduled executions through March of 2011. I have sent a message to the entire staff of the Office of the Ohio Public Defender for every execution and now include the listserv. It is difficult to find words to express the dismay and disgust at such a history. So, I say again: Today, Ohio will kill William Garner. That must have meaning. That we as a society can come to this moment, the deliberate taking of life, and to be so crass and callous, that it is just another one of many. Please never forget the immensity of this moment, the horror of the act of killing regardless of the actor and regardless of the method, and never forget that we can be better than this.
William Garner.
Sixth Person Executed in Ohio this year, thirty-ninth since 1999.
Posts
Note the post of the anonymous contributor and remember that this person might be sitting on a jury.
ReplyDeleteAahhh, the pleasure of speaking through the electronic hedge. I would like to criticize the anonymous post on one thing, it should have read "F U and the client you rode in on."
ReplyDeleteOn a serious note, this is troubling. Ohio's really pushing to revive it's death penalty and it's evident. Down here in KY we have an AG running for the Senate who signed three death warrants on one day in order to score political points. People need to realize that the long running decline is now coming to a ramp up.