Texas executes man in murder of liquor store clerk

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas on Tuesday executed a man who was convicted of fatally shooting a liquor store clerk in a robbery outside of Dallas in 1990.

Gustavo Garcia, 43, who has spent more than half of his life on death row, was put to death by lethal injection at the state's execution chamber in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. local time, a prisons official said.

The execution was the 534th in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state.

"To my family, to my mom, I love you. God bless you. Stay strong. I'm done," Garcia said in his final statement, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-executes-man-murder-liquor-store-clerk-005431825.html

[thomservo]

1. wow.

In 1990 he was only 17 or 18.

[Major Nikon]

2. The human brain doesn't fully develop until age 25

So while someone might legally be an adult at 18, they certainly haven't fully developed. So while his crimes might be heinous, executing someone who was 18 at the time isn't any better. Just another reason the death penalty is in no way progressive, yet you have people right here on DU who defend it, not to mention one of the two primary Democratic Party nominees for president.

"I believe it is time for the United States of America to join almost every other Western, industrialized country on Earth in saying no to the death penalty."
-- Bernie Sanders

[thomservo]

3. I don't think ...

you can be a progressive and pro death penalty.The two are mutually exclusive.

[christx30]

5. Too bad that didn't save the lives

of the two men he killed. They were put to death for the crime of going to work.
I have no sympathy for anyone that takes a life in a petty crime like robbery. If you're going to be an idiot and commit armed robbert, why not just tie the clerk up? Why take him from his family forever for like $50?
Garcia earned every second of his time in prison. I would have preferred he die of natural causes in prison at 80.

[Major Nikon]

6. Sympathy for the offender has nothing to do with it

That's simply a tired and worn out diversion used by those who have no logical arguments for the death penalty.

[christx30]

8. I'm more in the

"He's made his bed" school of thought. He chose to rob those stores. He chose to shoot and kill those two men. He deserves anything that happens to him.

[Major Nikon]

10. I'm not sure if by "anything" you mean things like being stoned to death by relatives of the victim

Civilized societies generally place limits on the treatment of offenders. How that happens is a matter of public policy.

Pointing to one instance and claiming the offender got what he "deserves" is no defense of a death penalty policy unless one thinks everyone who has ever been executed (including the innocent) also got what they "deserved", and if that's the case I don't think such a defense would be worth much.

[christx30]

11. So what do you think should be done with someone like this?

He murdered two people for absolutely no reason. Would you ever let him out of prison? If you are in charge would you keep him there forever? Or maybe when he's 50 let him out? He has no job prospects there's no way he ever be ableto contribute to society in any way. Anyone that googled him is going to find the two murders on his record. No one at all will hire him.
So at that point, the only choice he would have is either live off someone, or go back to his old days of armed robbery to survive. How many people would he kill?
So, in order to protect society, your choices would be to either keep him in his cage forever, or give him the needle. Because really, what's the difference between "you're going to die in prison there is no way out" and "come lie on this table and we'll stop your heart now"?

[Major Nikon]

12. Very simple

So, in order to protect society, your choices would be to either keep him in his cage forever, or give him the needle. Because really, what's the difference between "you're going to die in prison there is no way out" and "come lie on this table and we'll stop your heart now"?

This is a false dichotomy which I will not entertain.

They should be segregated from society until they are no longer a threat to it, and they should be punished for their crime sufficiently to dissuade any rational person from repeating it. Anything else is counterproductive. Now certainly this may include never again seeing the light of day, but such things should never be automatic.

Pure speculation on whatever his prospects are for society are not only a fruitless endeavor for deciding public policy and are easily debunked. There's no shortage of examples of death row inmates who have made significant contributions to society from behind cell walls, let alone outside of them. They also are often sons, daughters, husbands, wives, and other relations which have a significant impact on those associated with them.

[christx30]

15. So he writes a book.

Does a couple of interviews that say that he feels bad for what he did. Not exactly anything that useful.
And he was punished for the crime he commited. He took two lives.

[Major Nikon]

16. I'm not talking about him

I'm saying that assuming anyone will never contribute in any way to society at the time of sentencing is nothing more than pure speculation which is no rational basis for public policy on the death penalty.

[branford]

17. Your post indicates the only considerations you believe should be relevant for policies

dealing with violent criminals are potential deterrence and community safety. That is insufficient.

I and most others, regardless of whether they support capital punishment, believe that criminals should also face penalties as actual punishment for their individual deeds outside of any deterrence factors or community protection.

It's totally irrelevant if they later find God, write children's books, cure cancer, or anything else, some crimes should guarantee permanent and automatic punishments. The deliberate murder of an innocent during the commission of an armed felony could certainly warrant such a severe penalty.

I care little if Gustavo Garcia died of natural causes in a tiny prison cell or by a needle administered by the State, so long as his guilt was certain, justice was served.

However, if you want to abolish capital punishment, also effectively arguing against life without parole as a potential penalty is a strategy doomed to fail in the USA, particularly where one of the most convincing arguments against the death penalty is the existence of LWOP and that sufficiently protects the community, deters similar crimes, and actually punishes the offender.

[Major Nikon]

18. If it does, that certainly wasn't my intent

My intent is that public policy on the death penalty should be based on things which are reasonable and rational, and less on obvious appeal to emotion fallacies.

I and most others, regardless of whether they support capital punishment, believe that criminals should also face penalties as actual punishment for their individual deeds outside of any deterrence factors or community protection.

I'm not sure what you are basing this on, but I'm certainly not going to accept it as factual. Even if it were, using such a thing as a basis for public policy would make you guilty of doing what your subject line alleges. Not only does popular public opinion quite often get things ethically wrong, a lot depends on how you ask the question. If you conducted a survey and asked if they were willing to accept the inevitable execution of innocent people as a condition of continuing the death penalty, I suspect most would say no.

What people believe does not make it so. Punishment always should be based on consequence, deterrence, and the protection of society. This should not be confused with revenge which is an irrational response to injustice.

I care little if Gustavo Garcia died of natural causes in a tiny prison cell or by a needle administered by the State, so long as his guilt was certain, justice was served.

Was justice equally served by the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham?

The problem you have here is that justice is never certain, and even if that were somehow possible as a legal standard, it is certainly not the legal standard we have, nor will it ever be.

However, if you want to abolish capital punishment, also effectively arguing against life without parole as a potential penalty is a strategy doomed to fail in the USA, particularly where one of the most convincing arguments against the death penalty is the existence of LWOP and that sufficiently protects the community, deters similar crimes, and actually punishes the offender.

People said the same thing about gay marriage just not that long ago. Sometimes society does manage to progress, albeit sometimes while kicking and screaming. It also wasn't that long ago when a considerable number of western countries still utilized the death penalty, while now almost none do. I'm pretty convinced the US will eventually progress on the issue. YMMV.

[LanternWaste]

21. You reference revenge rather than justice.

"He deserves anything that happens to him."

You reference revenge rather than justice. That said, I too like to pretend I posses the wisdom to know who deserves what-- it allows us to more effectively rationalize prioritizing our visceral reactions of rational thought and the equitable application of justice.

[The Green Manalishi]

7. If your brain isn't fully formed and functioning by the time you are old enough to kill or procreate

well, bullshit.

Tired of this bullshit of adults (any individual old enough to kill or make kids) being treated like children. Most of the rest of the world is aware that someone in puberty should be treated 0 and punished- as an adult.

By the time I was 14 I considered myself fully adult, ready to fight, to die, to vote to debate ANY issue of politics that could be cast in terms of language. I mean this completely aside from the insane unfairness of the arbitrary way capital punishment is applied, or even the validity of the concept, but anyone who doesn't consider a 17 year old an ADULT is a dunce and part of the problem. Old enough to pull a trigger, get pregnant or get someone pregnant you're a godamned ADULT.

[Major Nikon]

9. How wonderfully progressive of you

Believe it or not, most of the civilized world has evolved some since 1944. YMMV.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stinney

[trillion]

19. +10000

[Travis_0004]

13. Are you saying an 18 year doesnt know that killing somebody is wrong?

I would have rather seen life without parole, but at 18 they should know that you shouldnt kill people.

If they dont, they should spend the rest of the lives thinking about it.

[Major Nikon]

14. No

[Reter]

4. Fuck him

From the article:

When Garcia was 18, he and accomplice Christopher Vargas, then 15, entered a liquor store in the Dallas suburb of Plano in December 1990.

Armed with a sawed-off shotgun, Garcia ordered the clerk, Craig Turski, to give him money from the cash register while his accomplice stole beer, according to the Texas Attorney General's office.

Garcia then shot Turski in the abdomen. Turski was able to leave the store, where he was pursued by Garcia, who shot him in the head, killing him, officials said.

[trillion]

20. Meanwhile today in that state many people were sent to prison for murder and never even had death

row considered. It comes down the lawyer, the prosecutor, the wealth of the family of the deceased and their influence, and half the time, race and all the time, poverty of the criminal. This guy just got murdered for something Washington state would have let him out in 6 for good behavior for(albeit I'm against letting murderes off with only 6 years)

Another case of how it is unfairly meted out.

Now there are more victims. The family of the guy they just executed will never heal, but then they were victims the whole time he was on death row and they feared this harrowing day, and they were praying for him not to be executed and spending every dime they had trying to get him a better lawyer. I imaging he had siblings and parents. Guess he missed the luck of the draw because 99% of the people who do the same crime in that state DON'T get executed or have to face the fear of going to death row.

You supporters of the dp must be thrilled. Do cartwheels that one got it and make sure you throw in extra clapping for the pain of that guy's family and the incredible cost to the tax payers.

[GOLGO 13]

22. And nothing of value was lost.

Fuck him. Texas got this one right.

[trillion]

24. Nothing of value was lost?

I would say another human life was lost.

[farleftlib]

23. How 19th century

We really need to catch up with the civilized world and stop this state-sanctioned murder.