Last week, there was an execution in Texas.
This, of course, is not an uncommon occurrence, because Texas is one of those state that clearly strongly believes in capital punishment.
However, one thing that stood out in this particular case is the nature of the crime that brought this man to meet his ultimate fate of state execution.
His name is John William King, and he was blatantly, even proudly, racist.
Slightly more than two decades ago, I remember hearing about this crime, and feeling shocked. It seems that it is not easy these days for crimes to truly shock people when they themselves are not personally affected, and merely hear it on the news. Yet, this one stood out, just because of how brutal and heartless it was.
King and some like-minded friends of his, who were also avowed white supremacists, and each of whom had done some time in prison, went looking for trouble one night. And they found it, not surprisingly.
They saw a 49-year old black man who was walking to his home, and offered him a ride. They offered to drive him, and the man accepted. But they did not take him home. They took him into the woods and beat him mercilessly.
Then, they hooked him up to the back of their pick-up truck, and dragged him for three miles down a quiet, largely deserted local road. He died at some point during this torture.
Of course, these men were known to the local police as being rabid white supremacists, and they apparently were not smart enough to try and cover their tracks, leaving apparently obvious clues as to who had done it.
And so, they were imprisoned, and the state of Texas pursued the death penalty.
Last week, one of these men, John William King, was executed for his crime.
Perhaps it is at this point that it needs to be pointed out that I am not for the death penalty, and do not feel that the state can effectively correct a wrong with another wrong. An eye for an eye approach has not really worked in the past too well.
That said, I will hardly be crying for this man. Apparently, as I understand it, these three men responsible for his horrific crime were hardly repentant. One of them - I am not sure whether it was King or not - claimed that he had no regrets, and that he would do it all over again if he could, given the chance.
So, while I still stand opposed to the death penalty, I was not exactly sad. I still feel that a better punishment, if punishment is what we are seeking for such horrific crimes, is for someone to rot away in a jail cell for the duration of their lives, rather than get a death penalty that effectively will make them martyrs for like-minded white supremacists. But the world is not losing a bright light, or anything like that. To me, there is no reason to celebrate death, no matter what the circumstances. I know that we human beings do, too often. And I am not celebrating this death. Even the loss of seemingly hopeless cases should be a somber and sobering experience, and not a moment to rejoice. That is why, in my own lifetime, I did not join others in celebrating the deaths of men like the Ayatollah Khomeini, or Osama Bin Laden.
But I am not mourning this man's loss, either. Anyone who is so completely dehumanized, that he can torture an innocent man like that, and just out of sheer hatred and stupidity, just blatant ignorance, was beyond any hope, anyway.
So, good riddance.
If there is some kind of lesson from all of this, let us hope that we learn it. Otherwise, this simply serves as yet one more of a seemingly endless laundry list of examples of senseless violence and mindless hatred, taken to the extreme of unprovoked action and violence committed against innocent people. Let us hope that we can put this behind us, while not forgetting, if that is even possible.
John William King, Racist Who Dragged James Byrd Jr. to Death, Executed in Texas The Daily Beast By julia.arciga@thedailybeast.com (Julia Arciga) ,The Daily Beast•April 24, 2019
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