excuse them of the heinous crimes against mankind these scumbags have been convicted of. I was livid when I learned recently that Scotland had released convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi to return home to Libya. Megrahi was released in August from a Scottish jail--where he was serving life for the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 270--on compassionate grounds due to his terminal prostate cancer. Libyan leader Moamar Gadhafi gave Megrahi a hero's welcome when the only one of Gadhafi's countrymen convicted in the bombing of PanAm 103 arrived in Tripoli on August 20, 2009.
Megrahi reportedly had a life expectancy of less than three months when the decision was made by Scottish officials to allow the mass murderer to go home to die. President Barack Obama voiced outrage at the Scot's decision, primarily because 190 of the 270 people killed in the December 21, 1988, airline bombing were American citizens. Megrahi was released from prison in time to return to Libya for the start of Ramadan. Well, ain't that nice? I will never possess the capacity to comprehend nor the power to agree with the kind of thinking that allows such idiotic decisions to be made. A human being, in my opinion, is no longer a viable candidate for compassion of any kind from his or her fellow humans when they are responsible for the loss of multiple lives. This way of thinking also applies to killers like Susan Atkins, who had gained considerable support from public opinion in her attempts to receive parole from prison earlier this year when she was dying from brain cancer.
For those of you who have forgotten, Atkins was a participant in the murders attributed to the Manson Family in 1969 in the Los Angeles area. Among those murdered in Manson's gang's killing spree were (pictured above, at right) actress Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring of the Sebring hair products fame. Slightly tempering my vitriolic response to Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds, was the California parole board's decision to deny Atkins's request for parole on similar grounds about two weeks later. Atkins died on September 24, 2009, at the Central California Women's facility in Chowchilla. Reportedly her last whispered word was "Amen."
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley opposed Atkins's request for parole, writing in a letter to the parole board, her release "would be an affront to people of this state, the California criminal justice system and the next of kin of many murder victims. Atkins's horrific crimes alone warrant a denial of her request."
Vincent Bugliosi, the district attorney who prosecuted the Manson Family killers and wrote the highly successful book "Helter Skelter" about the criminal case, said he was not opposed to Atkins being released from prison to die from her brain cancer at home. "She has paid substantially, though not completely, for her horrendous crimes. Paying completely would be imposing the death penalty."
Which is exactly what Charles Manson and his followers all deserved, death, not the life sentences most of them have been serving since being convicted of multiple murders. Steve Grogan, convicted in 1971 for helping Manson, Tex Watson and Bruce Davis kill Spahn's Ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea, was released from prison in 1985 and remains the only Manson Family member that's been convicted of murder to be released from prison. Grogan, who is now 63, drew a map for authorities to find Shea's buried body.
Also in the news currently is the big debate over capital punishment in the State of Texas, sparked by the recent release from death row of Ernest Willis, a West Texas man who spent 17 years in prison. Willis, 64, was sentenced to death for a 1986 house fire in the Pecos County town of Iraan in which two sleeping women died.
Another arson-related multiple murder incident in Texas involves Cameron Todd Willingham. But while Willis has been released from death row, it is too late to save Willingham. He was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004. Willingham was convicted in August 1992 of the arson murders of his three children--2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon Diane and Kameron Marie--and sentenced to pay with his life.
The pitfalls of capital punishment come to the forefront in the cases of Ernest Willis and Cameron Todd Willingham. Their cases were among those to be discussed at an October 2nd meeting of the Texas Forensic Science Commission that was derailed when Texas Governor Rick Perry unexpectedly removed the commission's chairman and two other members. Perry has insisted Willingham was guilty of setting the 1991 Corsicana house fire in which his young children died.
In 2004 a federal judge ruled that authorities wrongly dosed Willis with anti-psychotic drugs during his trial, leaving him a virtual zombie. The federal judge demanded that Willis be retried or set free. A Pecos County district attorney then dropped the charges against Willis, admitting that the Iraan fire appeared to have been an accident.
While on death row, Willis said he never gave up hope that he would be able to avoid his date with the death chamber. "It made it a lot tougher knowing that I was innocent," Willis lamented. "If I had been guilty, I would have been ready to face the music. But I tried never to give up hope. I was always preparing myself for release."
The criminal justice system in Texas is far from perfect. Carl Wayne Buntion's stroke of luck has my temperature rising. It irritates the hell out of me that Buntion will be getting a new trial because the decision that sent him to death row for murdering Houston Police Officer James Irby nearly 20 years ago was recently overturned. The state's appellate court basically said the jury in Buntion's punishment phase simply did not have all of the information when they sentenced him to death back in 1991. His murder conviction stands. Buntion is still guilty of shooting Officer Irby in the head during a minor traffic stop in 1990.
It appears the jury did not get to consider Buntion's troubled childhood and mental health issues during the punishment phase. Oh, don't get me started on that one. A troubled childhood? Mental health issues? How do those issues even deserve a spot on the punishment radar? Did Carl Wayne Buntion shoot HPD Officer James Irby in the head in a 1990 traffic stop? Yes, he did. End of story.
Reginald Blanton was scheduled to be administered lethal injection Tuesday night in Huntsville. If I had anything to say about it, I would have Carl Wayne Buntion wheeled in on another gurney directly behind the Blanton dude so Reggie would have some company on his midnight ride to hades. Why waste the taxpayers' money feeding human slime like Buntion while he remains on death row awaiting another punishment trial in Houston.
And Blanton, there's a true paragon of virtue. He was captured on videotape in April 2000 selling two gold necklaces at a San Antonio pawn shop. It turns out those necklaces belonged to 22-year-old Carlos Garza, who had been shot to death at his apartment in the Alamo City about 20 minutes prior to Blanton waltzing into the pawn shop to sell his gold chains.
Other good news for supporters of capital punishment--a necessary evil in a world where street thugs will take your life for the hundred dollar Jordans on your feet and the fistful of Washingtons in your pockets--comes in the announcement this week that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the capital murder convictions and death sentences of Howard Paul Guidry and John Steven Gardner. The two Texas death row inmates, one a hit man in a murder-for-hire plot and the other a man who killed his wife, had their appeals denied. Guidry was convicted in 1997 in the shooting death of 33-year-old Farah Fratta in Harris County. Gardner was convicted in the 2005 shooting death of his wife, Tammy Dawn Gardner, in her Collin County home shortly before their divorce was to become final.
If there ever was a criminal deserving of the death penalty as punishment for his crimes it was Jeffrey Dahmer. He was apprehended on July 22, 1991, by Milwaukee police and later convicted of the gruesome killings of 17 male victims in a highly publicized case of mass murder. But the state of Wisconsin does not have the death penalty, so Dahmer was sentenced to 15 life terms in prison. Did Dahmer receive a just punishment when fellow inmate Christopher Scarver beat him to death with a barbell at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin on November 28, 1994? I think so. The first of Dahmer's 17 murder victims was bludgeoned to death with a barbell. Dahmer, pictured below at left, declared himself a born again Christian while in prison. This is a conversion many inmates claim while behind bars. Does such a conversion allow these killers ascension into heaven upon their deaths? I think not. But this is where my opinions and those of many Christians part ways. Tex Watson, the most active participant in the well publicized killings of the Manson Family in 1969, wrote that he became a born-again Christian in prison and operates "Abounding Love Ministries" while remaining incarcerated. He has written about his role in the murders, the sorrow he feels for his involvement, and has made an apology to the family members of his victims on his website, stating that he believes he is "forgiven by God."
Do you think God has forgiven Howard Barton Unruh for the seemingly random murders of 13 people in Camden, New Jersey, in 1949? Unruh died October 19, 2009, at the age of 88 following a lengthy illness in a Trenton, New Jersey, nursing facility. Unruh had been confined in a state psychiatric hospital since being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by psychologists and found to be hopelessly insane. The diagnosis, which prevented Unruh from being prosecuted for his September 6, 1949, killing spree, was followed by the mass murderer's statement, "I'd have killed a thousand if I had bullets enough."
Unruh, a 28-year-old World War II veteran who fought at the Battle of the Bulge, took only 12 minutes to shoot and kill 13 of his East Camden, New Jersey, neighbors with a German Luger pistol. Among his murder victims were a 9-year-old, 6-year-old and 2-year-old. In reading earlier this week of the death of Howard Unruh and the horrendous crimes he committed long before I was born, I could only voice regrets that there was nobody like Christopher Scarver locked up with Unruh who had a set of barbells nearby.
Are redemption and rehabilitation possible inside the concrete walls of our nation's prisons? Yes, I believe they are, in isolated situations. But it is my opinion that parole and second chances should be reserved for those inmates whose crimes do not involve the taking of another human's life. And when the subject of weighing whether or not to release a convicted murderer from prison involves those who have killed multiple victims, it should be a moot point. No, never, ever, period. Compassion should never figure into the equation. Just look at the photo of Sharon Tate below. What a truly beautiful woman. She was still in her twenties, within weeks of giving birth of her first child, when she was murdered by a gang that showed zero compassion to her, her unborn baby, and the other people with her the night they were all killed in 1969. So when Susan Denise Atkins was denied parole on September 2nd of this year despite being paralyzed over 85 percent of her body, unable to sit up on her own, brain cancer slowly killing her, I believe the Californai parole board made the right decision. A difficult one, yes, but still the right decision. Read on about Atkins's crimes and perhaps you will understand why I take this stance against her parole.
Charles Manson, pictured at right below, was denied parole for the eleventh time on May 23, 2007. His next parole hearing is scheduled in 2012. Manson, now 74 years old, seemingly had the members of his "family" under his spell in 1969 when he orchestrated the mass murders of people he did not know and who had done nothing to harm him or any of the members of his blood thirsty gang of assassins. Their crimes were detailed in the book and TV movie "Helter Skelter" and all of them would have been executed, and justly so, many years ago if not for the California Supreme Court's People vs. Anderson decision that invalidated all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972. Thus vicious killers like Charles Manson, Tex Watson and Robert F. Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Bishara Sirhan had their death sentences 
changed to life imprisonment.
changed to life imprisonment.
On the evening of August 8, 1969, Charles Manson gathered Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel in front of Spahn's Ranch and told them to go with Charles "Tex" Watson and do as they were told. In Atkins' grand jury testimony, she stated that while in the car, Watson told the group they were going to a home to get money from the people who lived there and to kill them. Five people were murdered at the Beverly Hills home where movie director Roman Polanski and his actress wife, Sharon Tate, lived. Tate, a sexy blond beauty (pictured at left) who starred in the movie "Valley Of The Dolls," was eight months pregnant with Polanski's child. Murdered that night by Manson's group of killers were Tate, Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger. Polanski was in Europe at the time of the killings, finishing work on a film project.
Forensic evidence indicated that the murders were extremely brutal. Just prior to leaving the Polanski-Tate residence, Atkins wrote "PIG" on the front door in Sharon Tate's blood. Watson, a Dallas native who claimed to have been high on speed the night of the killings, allegedly told Frykowski prior to killing him, "I am the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's business." In testimony at his murder trial, Watson denied having made that remark but later acknowledged saying it in his autobiography.
On the night after the pregnant Sharon Tate and her house guests were all murdered, Manson called Atkins, Krenwinkel, Watson, Kasabian, Leslie Van Houten and Steve Grogan to join him for another night of carnage. Manson and Watson entered the home of grocery store owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in Los Feliz, a Los Angeles suburb, and tied them up at gunpoint. Manson then allegedly went outside the house and sent Krenwinkel and Van Houten inside to do as Watson told them. Manson instructed the women to leave messages in blood as they had done the night before at the Polanski mansion.
Another member of Manson's group at Spahn's Ranch implicated Atkins in the murders and she was arrested by Los Angeles police in October 1969. While in jail, Atkins confessed her participation in the Tate/LaBianca murders to two cellmates who later reported her statements to the authorities. Atkins agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, and she then testified before the grand jury as to what had transpired on the nights of August 8 and 9, 1969.
Atkins told the grand jury that she stabbed Frykowski in the legs and that she held Tate down while Watson stabbed her. She also testified that Tate had pleaded for her life and that of her unborn child, to which Atkins replied, "Woman, I have no mercy for you." Atkins later claimed her participation in the murders was passive and that she did not actually kill anyone. In his 1978 memoir, Watson declared himself solely responsible for all of Tate's injuries, characterizing Atkins' initial confessions as exaggeration, jail house bragging, and a bid for attention.
In 1977, Atkins published her autobiography, "Child of Satan, Child of God," in which she recounted the time she spent with the Manson family, her religious conversion, and her prison experiences. From 1974 onwards, Atkins stated she was a born-again Christian. Yet she was denied parole 18 times and died in prison on September 24 of this year.
Debra Tate, the sister of Sharon Tate, said her family was ripped apart by her famous sister's brutal and senseless 1969 murder. "If Susan Atkins is released to rejoin her family, where is the justice?"
Charles Denton "Tex" Watson, pictured below at right, was tried separately from the other members of Charles Manson's "Family" and was convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death on October 21, 1971. Spared execution like his other Manson Family members when his death penalty was changed to life in prison, Watson remains incarcerated today in Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California. He has been denied parole 13 times. His next scheduled parole hearing is in December, 2011. Tex Watson is now 63 years old.
Doris Tate, the mother of actress Sharon Tate, addressed Watson at his parole hearing in 1984. "What mercy, sir, did you show my daughter when she was begging for her life?" Doris Tate asked Watson when he was asking the California parole board to show him mercy and grant him parole. "What mercy did you show my daughter when she said give me two weeks to have my baby and then you can kill me? When will Sharon come up for parole? Will these seven victims and possibly more walk out of their graves if you get paroled?"
Doris Tate, who died in 1992 at the age of 68, confronted Watson again at his 1990 parole hearing. Her work as an advocate for victim's rights was taken over by her daughter, Patti, who was involved in the establishment of the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau, a non-profit organization with the aim of monitoring criminal legislation and raising public awareness. Patti represented the Tate family at parole hearings for Manson and the other killers until 2000, when she died from breast cancer. Her role was assumed by the middle Tate daughter, Debra, who carries on the tradition of her mother and sister by appearing at parole hearings of the Manson Family members to voice opposition to any of them ever being paroled from prison.
When television cameras focus on such celebrities as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, actor Danny Glover and Bianca Jagger, the ex-wife of Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, as they speak out at The Walls prison in Huntsville, Texas, in opposition of capital punishment, TV viewers seldom see a hint of the extreme anguish, suffering and intense grief the families and friends of those murderer's victims have had to endure. The media far too often give a platform to those crying out against the death penalty to seek forgiveness for the scum of society who are undeserving of such compassion.
The Ernest Willis's of the world are by far the exception and not the rule. It is true that the execution of a single innocent man or woman is one too many. I agree that such an incident would be an unforgivable travesty. But to repeal the death penalty in the State of Texas due to the revelation that one innocent man might have been executed by mistake would be exactly that, a huge mistake.
"Most of the people on death row are guilty," Willis was quoted as saying in a recent Houston Chronicle article. "But there's a small percentage who are not. Willingham told me he was innocent. His case was almost identical to mine. I believed him."
Willingham's ex-wife does not agree with Willis's statements. "I believe he was guilty," said Stacy Kuykendall of her ex-husband. She told a Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter that Willingham told her before his execution that he had set fire to the house and killed their children because he knew that she was going to leave him. "He was sorry for what he did," Kuykendall said. "But he did confess."
"He started the fire and killed the kids," said Waco lawyer David Martin, Willingham's court-appointed attorney during his murder trial. "His conduct was really incriminating, and his statements were irreconcilably inconsistent."
As Willingham's legal representative, Martin said he unsuccessfully tried to raise reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors and believes that Willingham should have accepted a plea-bargain offer for life in prison to avoid his ultimate date in the Texas death chamber. Martin has claimed recently that he felt compelled to speak out in recent interviews, even though he has come under intense criticism from his former client's defenders for asserting that Willingham was guilty.
"When it began to be expressed that an innocent man had been executed, I took an interest in responding to that because that's just not the case," Martin said in a recent interview at his ranch near Corsicana.
The cornerstone of the state's case against Willingham was the arson investigation. An accelerant was splashed on the floor and near the threshold of the door of the home Willingham had shared with Kuykendall in 1991, arson investigators ruled.
"I was completely convinced that it was both a murder and an arson fire," said John H. Jackson, a retired judge and the former assistant district attorney who led the prosecution of Willingham. "I think the death penalty opponents really do themselves a disservice by identifying this guy as a poster child. There are a lot of good arguments against the death penalty, but this is not one of them."
"I don't know what he did," Willis says of Willingham, his fellow Texas death row inmate. But the West Texas man who spent 17 years on death row for an arson-murder he supposedly did not commit, says he is convinced the former Corsicana auto mechanic was innocent, based on his conversations with Willingham.
The recently freed death row inmate is requesting that Texas Governor Rick Perry publicly admit the Lone Star State may have erred when Texas executed Willingham for intentionally killing his three children in 1991. "I think (Perry) should step up to the plate, call for a death penalty moratorium, listen to the experts and see what kind of situation we've got," Willis said in a telephone conversation with a Houston Chronicle reporter from his Midland home.
Former Texas Governor Mark White, who was governor from 1983-87, agrees it is time the state reconsiders its use of capital punishment, basing his opinion on the risk being too great that innocent people could be put to death. White, a Democrat, said the death penalty no longer deters murder, long delays between convictions and executions show there is no swift justice, and he's increasingly concerned it isn't administered fairly.
"There's a very strong case to be made for a review of our death penalty statutes and even look at the possibility of having life without parole so we don't look up one day and determine that we, as the state of Texas, have executed someone who in fact was innocent," White said.
Twenty death row inmates were executed during the period Mark White was Texas's attorney general and governor between 1979 and 1987.
Perry, Texas's longest-serving governor, has vigorously defended his actions in connection with Willingham's 2004 execution and depicts Willingham as "a monster."
Unfortunately for all of us Texans and our fellow inhabitants of the rest of the world, far too many "monsters' lurk among us. In my little corner of the world in West Columbia, Texas, I have been appalled and shocked by the many heartless murders that have occurred in recent years in West Columbia, Brazoria, Sweeny, Old Ocean, Surfside and the Brazosport area. Life is a fragile commodity and I would definitely be opposed to any innocent life being taken, but I remain fully committed to throwing my support behind the continuation of capital punishment in my home state. I disagree with former Governor White, who I once interviewed at John Gayle's lake house near West Columbia when he was running for governor and I was the editor of The Brazoria County News. I think the death penalty remains a deterrant to murder to some degree.
And I believe in the Biblical declaration that the taking of a human life must be subjected to the ultimate punishment of giving one's own life in return. Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 21, in the Bible I was given as a child states, "Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment."
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