[Texgreen] RE: Joseph Nichols' execution, Dave Atwood's letter to be published

[Art Browning]

At least in the San Antonio daily as a letter to the editor. -- Maybe 
more papers, who knows?

(He got a phone call during the vigil Wednesday at Shepherd and Westheimer.)

Read on:
-------------------
I sent this to a number of newspapers earlier this evening.  As you 
know, I am always trying to write something that is different and shine 
a light on this huge system of injustice.    
 
Our condolences to Lee Greenwood and her family. They are brave, 
wonderful people.  
 
 Dave

 
*Like Jesus, Joseph Nichols was stripped before being executed *
** 
*  *
Apparently Joseph Nichols, refusing to cooperate with prison guards as 
they planned to kill him,  was stripped to his shorts and 
transported that way to the death chamber in Huntsville.   Then he was 
strapped to a gurney and poisons were injected into his body until he 
was dead. 
 
Before the Christian fundamentalists get too upset, I am not trying to 
say that Joseph was another Jesus.  I'm sure he would not want that 
label himself.  However, it is true that he did not shoot the person for 
which he received the death penalty.  It is also true that he was a 
model prisoner during his +25 years in prison and there was no good 
reason for the state to execute him, except for vengeance.   
 
It was obvious to almost everyone who followed the case that the 
Harris County District Attorney used outright deception to get the death 
penalty on Joseph.  However, the district attorney, as always, tries to 
defend his actions.  Anyone who has watched the operations of that 
office for many years knows that they will do almost anything to get the 
death penalty on someone. That includes lying.  
 
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the Texas Board of Pardons and 
Paroles are not much better.  They are stacked with people who support 
the death penalty 150%.  "Harmless error" is their favorite mantra.  
"Harmless to whom?"  would be my question.  Certainly not to the poor 
person who had a court-appointed attorney to represent him during trial.  
 
And the Governor?  "Hear no evil, see no evil" is his mantra.  Perry is 
approaching Bush's record 152 executions at this time.  The death 
penalty is rife with politics, and for that reason alone, it should be 
shut down.  
 
The common, everyday citizen in Texas does not know how biased, corrupt 
and politicized the death penalty system is. They also do not know how 
brutal the prison system is.   But when you take a prisoner on his last 
day on earth, strip him, and then execute him, it doesn't get any more 
brutal (or evil) than that.  
 
 
David Atwood 
1802 Kipling St. 
Houston, Texas 77098
832-693-5710