David Grann's "Trial By Fire" in the current New Yorker is extremely long, extremely grim, and extremely powerful. I'm not going to pull anything out or even describe it much beyond saying that it tells the story of an innocent man who was put to death in Texas. But I will tell you that it is profoundly affecting and you should take some time to read it.
You need to be held, don't you?
Good gravy was that an eviscerating read. Even the smaller details, like why the French teacher missed the execution. Christ.
I am really not the sort of person to say something like this, but I believe that Rick Perry belongs in prison.
Apocalypse now.
What gets me is the fundamental weakness of all these supposed "safegaurds" against the impossibility executing an innocent person. Overstressed appeals lawyers, secret meetings, the non review of new data, the criminal negligence of the prosecution and defense, the inherent manupilability of witness testimony...
We are not fundamentally competent enough to exercise the power over life and death, and therefore should not.
Oh my GOD, I'm only on page 4 but this is so horrific and painful to read and I can only see more layers of horror and pain ahead. Remember last week when people thought that shit about Mary Gaitskill's cat was sad?
What truly reeks, from a professional standpoint--and there is that, buried in all this--is that the case was predicated on "science" that bubbled out of pure sophistry. The telltale is that the "arson investigator" who testified at trial was allowed to offer an opinion about motive--based purely on flimsy physical evidence.
We can agree our world is full of beasts who ought to be put down. We can disagree whether capital punishment is any sane way to address that dilemma. But this here is just an utter crime in itself. The State killed this man--the blood is on all hands.
And it's not like it has even the hope of a bitter/happy ending; there's approximately one snowball's chance in hell that Texas will become the first state to admit to having executed a legally and factually innocent person.
No one is innocent in Jesus' eyes. Problem solved.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/chi-forensics-willingham-photogallery,0,7198101.photogallery
I know it's late and won't be noticed, but I thought perhaps this story wasn't sad enough, so I found pictures.
I just read it. I am now weeping.