Texas Executes Security Guard for Shooting Frenzy

[Admiral Piett]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090129/...exas_execution

Texas executes former security guard for killing 4

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer Michael Graczyk, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jan 28, 9:53 pm ET


HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Texas executed a former Houston security guard Wednesday for gunning down four people, including his ex-girlfriend and her two small children, during an October 1996 shooting frenzy.


Virgil Martinez, 41, was condemned for killing 27-year-old Veronica Fuentes; her children, 5-year-old Joshua and 3-year-old Casandra; and an 18-year-old neighbor, John Gomez, in Alvin, just south of Houston.
Martinez was the fourth Texas inmate executed this year and the first of two on consecutive nights this week in the nation's most active death penalty state.


He delivered a rambling final statement in which he told relatives he loved them, then blamed Gomez, who survived long enough to tell a police officer at the scene that Fuentes' former boyfriend was the gunman, for three of the slayings.


"I know what you've been told and that's all a lie," he said, looking toward the victims' relatives watching through a window. "John Gomez killed your kids and sister."


He was recounting the slayings when prison officials, who warn inmates they have only a couple minutes for final comments, began pumping in the lethal drugs.


Nine minutes later, at 6:50 p.m., he was pronounced dead.


Martinez's lawyers had tried to delay punishment, saying he might be so mentally ill that he could be disqualified for execution. Appeals pending in federal courts briefly delayed the lethal injection beyond its scheduled 6 p.m. start time.


Jerry Fuentes, whose family was killed, watched the execution and read from a prepared statement, saying he vowed to see Martinez brought to justice on the day he laid his family to rest.


"The wheels of justice have finally turned," he said. "Although the system is flawed, justice has been served."


---




So what do you guys think. Was this justified?

[boofhead]

Here he is

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/martinezvirgil.htm

I don't see how I can know whether the Texas courts got their verdict right or not, but assuming they did, his death was just and deserved.

[Dromikaites]

Are you asking if it is justified to execute the guy for killing 4 people (including 2 small children) or if we think he was guilty?

[Admiral Piett]

Both.

Though, it seems to be pretty apparent he was guilty. The man he shot was able to tell a police officer it was him who did it before he died.

Assuming he was guilty, was this just?

[Big War Bird]

First degree murder of more than one person? Yes the death penalty seems to apply.

[Salvatorel]

He deserved it,IMO such events must not make any significant news headlines as it is in China or was in USSR

Was this justified?

I think that yes,he killed a woman,her children and an young man in cold blood and he paid for this.

[Barry Goldwater]

Both.

Though, it seems to be pretty apparent he was guilty. The man he shot was able to tell a police officer it was him who did it before he died.

Assuming he was guilty, was this just?.

Assuming he is guilty, of course he deserves this.
________
Avandia heart attack

[Hunter Makoy]

I think guilt in his case is much more then an assumption. Now if your asking about whether or not there's a possibility he was really mentally ill and there for shouldn't have been executed, I doubt it. Its been over 12 years since the crimes, if there was any real evidence it would have come out long ago, not just these last minute appeals.

[Nikos]

I don't agree with the death penalty. He should have gotten life in prison. Killing him will not bring those people back.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Ghandi

[Big War Bird]

I don't agree with the death penalty. He should have gotten life in prison. Killing him will not bring those people back.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Ghandi

When will people stop using that dumb quote? It's silly in presuming that everyone wants to go around wronging everyone else.

[DimondLight]

I don't agree with the death penalty. He should have gotten life in prison. Killing him will not bring those people back.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Ghandi

Throwing him in prison wouldn't either.

[Nikos]

Throwing him in prison wouldn't either.

That's not my point. The death penalty should be abolished. We live in a modern Western nation. Leave him in prison to rot.

Thats referring to revenge, not justice.

Justice would be throwing in jail to rot. Killing him is not necessary.

[spiderman101]

That's not my point. The death penalty should be abolished. We live in a modern Western nation. Leave him in prison to rot.

Justice would be throwing in jail to rot. Killing him is not necessary.

Leave him in prison to rot?? what so he can play Xbox for the next 10 years, then get out on good behavior and kill someone else. I don't thing so.

[Nikos]

Leave him in prison to rot?? what so he can play Xbox for the next 10 years, then get out on good behavior and kill someone else. I don't thing so.

Xbox? I don't think they have that in Maximum security prison. Life wothout parole is what I say.

[Kavhan Isbul]

I don't agree with the death penalty. He should have gotten life in prison. Killing him will not bring those people back.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Ghandi

Sure, put him in a cage for the rest of his life, because this is really humane.

Also, if I am not mistaken, the cost for every prisoner in a high security jail comes to about $40k per year, which is pretty much worth a year of college education spent on someone, who simply does not want to be (and will not be) part of society. What a giant waste!

[Admiral Piett]

Sure, put him in a cage for the rest of his life, because this is really humane.

Also, if I am not mistaken, the cost for every prisoner in a high security jail comes to about $40k per year, which is pretty much worth a year of college education spent on someone, who simply does not want to be (and will not be) part of society. What a giant waste!

Think about the cost of all the court appeals for the sentence. All that adds up pretty high, too. Also, if we were to decriminalize a lot of the drugs stuff, prisons would have around 60% less criminals per year and far less crowding issues and public money squandered. Another reason the war on drugs is one of the biggest financial, moral blunders this country has committed itself to.

I'm personally on the fence about the death penalty myself. Statistics have shown that the death penalty is not a deterrent for murder and rape. My state executes the most people in the Union, but we still have one of the highest murder rates. It's just not working.

That and I don't like the idea that the state can withhold your right to live. It just doesn't sit well in my soul.

I really don't know...

[Kavhan Isbul]

My point is not about having the death punisshment as a deterrent.
The death punishment is not goven for minor offenses, obviously, and as logn as a person is proven guilty, I personally do not see why society should allocate resources (and quite a lot of them) to support his/her unproductive existence, especially since he/she chose to harm others and not be part of society himself/herself.
And the whole right to live issue works both ways. The victims also had such a right, the murderer did not seem to care for. So why should we care about his right to life then?

[Admiral Piett]

My point is not about having the death punisshment as a deterrent.
The death punishment is not goven for minor offenses, obviously, and as logn as a person is proven guilty, I personally do not see why society should allocate resources (and quite a lot of them) to support his/her unproductive existence, especially since he/she chose to harm others and not be part of society himself/herself.
And the whole right to live issue works both ways. The victims also had such a right, the murderer did not seem to care for. So why should we care about his right to life then?

But the death penalty is supposed to be a detterent, obviously not a rehabilitation. And honestly, a life in solitary confinement is far worse than being killed. That's an easy way out. Rather, let them think about what they've done. In prison, time draws out like a blade. Criminals like this, rather, just shouldn't have a chance of parole.

Since when is it the law that everyone must lead productive lives? Now I agree, murderers have no place in living amongst us, but what right is it of ours to decide that we can take a life without conscience? A lot of it just seems to be contradictory to our principles as a civilized people. I mean, we're trying to cut down on violent crimes.

I know that it sounds impractical, but the death penalty is just one of those things that really doesn't sit well with me, at all. The facts do seem to suggest against it as being an effective means to cut down crime and its questionable as a form of justice.

[spiderman101]

My point is not about having the death punisshment as a deterrent.
The death punishment is not goven for minor offenses, obviously, and as logn as a person is proven guilty, I personally do not see why society should allocate resources (and quite a lot of them) to support his/her unproductive existence, especially since he/she chose to harm others and not be part of society himself/herself.
And the whole right to live issue works both ways. The victims also had such a right, the murderer did not seem to care for. So why should we care about his right to life then?

agreed

[The King Of Peasants]

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

Thats referring to revenge, not justice.