Life The Endorsement of a Lifetime
posted by on July 25 at 12:11 PM
Dale Bishop, a mentally disabled man, was sentenced to death in Mississippi and killed by lethal injection Wednesday night. His final words:
“For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice,” Bishop said. … “God bless America. It has been great living here. That’s all.”
Probably not the best endorsement for Obama, but it’s a sad and poignant call. Capital punishment is plagued with problems: upholding convictions is exorbitantly expensive, sometimes the penalty can be applied without enough evidence, and, frankly, the people who are guilty murderous fucks—they should be forced to rot in prison. However, unlike most people sentenced to death, Bishop wasn’t convicted of delivering the fatal blows that killed a man—but he was an accessory to a murder resulting from “a fight that had gone too far,” he said. He’s the eighth person in the US to be executed without being found guilty of directly killing a victim. But GoBama ‘08!
Brought to you via TalkLeft, and Slog tipper Nicole.
We won't support flip-flopping NO-Bama and will re-defeat him in November!!!
This post should really point out that Obama is not against the death penalty and actually worked to expand its application in Illinois. Not exactly a friend of those on death row.
@2: This is why mentally disabled people's political commentary should be taken with a grain of salt. Or better yet, as is the case with @1, ignored.
Ironies abound.
The killer is serving a life sentence -- having been tried separately, not having been mentally ill, and not having requested the death penalty (in a bout of deeper-than-usual depression).
Um, the term "re-defeat" implies that he lost, which he didn't (not that I should dignify this idiocy with a response, apologies for feeding the particularly stupid troll).
Mississippi goddamn.
Dominic,
Weird all around. It's already been said but Sen. Obama is pro Capital Punishment. In fact, he's to the right of me on it (I support CP). He supports the Death Penalty for child rape too (I don't). Evidently, that inmate didn't get it.
You sounded sexy on NPR today, Dom. Talkin' about all those zoning restrictions and stuff.
HAWT!
"upholding convictions is exorbitantly expensive,"
I wonder why that is? maybe the automatic appeals? I wonder how many wrongly convicted people would like an opportunity to appeal, (with the risk of losing) or would prefer to just be forgotten to "to rot in prison"
Sure the stories of people on death row being found innocent make the news, but what gave the impetus for the sometime extraordinary investigations that resulted in the finding? could it be the impending execution?
@8 is right. Smokin hawt.
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