Updated at 7PM on June 2, 2010.
Tuesday, June 2, Texas executed George Jones (TDCJ info). He had an 11th grade education. More than 80 percent of all people in Texas prisons are high school dropouts.
Alba was the 459th person executed in Texas since 1982 and the 220th person since Rick Perry became governor. He was the 12th person executed in Texas in 2010.
Use the Governor’s email form to contact Perry to express your opposition to this execution. Or call Perry and leave a voice mail at 512 463 1782. If you live in Texas, call your state legislators and let them know that you support a moratorium on executions. Find out who your legislators are here.
Authorities linked George Jones to numerous crimes in the Dallas area, mostly carjackings, and Jones admits he dealt drugs around the city.But the 36-year-old Dallas man says he “accidentally” shot Forest Hall once in self-defense and isn’t responsible for the fatal shooting and carjacking that put Jones on death row. He’s scheduled to be executed this evening in Huntsville.“I wasn’t there when the dude got shot,” Jones said of the April 13, 1993, slaying of the 22-year-old Hall, whose body was found beside a rural road near Lancaster . The Parkland Memorial Hospital worker had been shot twice in the head.“I wasn’t involved. I didn’t do it – period,” Jones said from a small visiting cage outside death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit.Greg Davis, who prosecuted him for capital murder, called Jones’ innocence claims “absolute falsity.”Jones’ appeals were exhausted and no last-minute attempts to stop the punishment were planned, his lawyer said. The lethal injection would be the 12th this year in Texas, the nation’s most active capital punishment state.
Who cares what his education level was, it does not excuse the right from wrong problem, even children know that murder is wrong. It is too bad that a few people do not seem to understand that some criminals deserve the ultimate punishment. Deterrent to crime? Who cares, he will not be committing another, I assure you! We as a society deserve permanent protection from these predators. Until they are willing to build and staff near escape proof super-max type prisons, then there is only one way to solve this problem. The system is not perfect either way, and yes innocent people have probably been executed, however with the appeals process now reaching out to 15 years, the chances are darned good that justice was done. It is also true there are 2 separate standards for the haves and the have not's, but the system we have is better than most of the modern world. I can think of none better off hand. More than 85% of US citizens support the death penalty and again and again it has been upheld by the courts. As the liberal judiciary continues to be staffed by the current administration,the small majority may have a chance of derailing the opinion and desire of the majority. Still, you are entitled to your opinion, as are we all, thankfully, at least we can agree on that.