Just Kill 'em and Make 'em Go Away

A designated representative of the state of Oklahoma killed Jimmy Ray Slaughter yesterday. He was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her one-year old child in particularly brutal fashion. The problem is most of the evidence pointed away from Slaughter. One of the primary witnesses against him committed suicide after testifying before the grand jury. Another prime suspect in the case was never investigated by the police. All DNA and lab evidence used against him used testing methods that have subsequently been discredited. OKC District Attorney Wes Lane, the man called by God to be DA (according to Lane), was a prosecutor on the case. That's enough to tell me the case wasn't conducted with any integrity. In fact, Slaughter's wife corroborated his alibi, so the police locked her up and threatened her with an accessory charge if she didn't recant. She was held in jail for more than a year. I don't believe she recanted, but I could be wrong. Lest you think I'm just a whining liberal:

"Dennis Dill, a retired Edmond police office and initial lead investigator on the case, also concedes Slaughter may be innocent. He reportedly stated if the state were to carry out the execution, they will be killing an innocent man. 'If they do this, they might just as well take him out and lynch him,' Dill stated. He contends he was taken off the case because he didn’t feel the investigation was being conducted properly and that police had wrongly focused on Slaughter to the exclusion of other suspects."

New DNA evidence that could have helped exonerate Slaughter was not allowed to be introduced because the Oklahoma Court of Appeals ruled that the deadline had passed. Well, by all means, let's not let anything so inconvenient as exculpatory evidence get in the way of a good, solid deadline. This is perverse.

Comments

[eddie]

Let the guy go, kill him, I don't care. I just want to quit hearing about it every where.

[Brandon]

You know, this case alone is enough to convince me that humans are incapable of the competence it would require to be able to ethically impose any sentence of deth.

[bobstevens]

I can't get past the irony of the guy's last name. I hadn't heard about this until just now so possibly everyone else got over the irony months ago.

[Sharon]

One might care what happened to Jim Slaughter, but think of countless others that will be legally murdered unless we stop the death penalty and/or let the accused present all evidence that might prove his/her innocence. Jim was my cousin and I know the kind of person he was as a child and as an adult. He was very intelligent and he saw things in a little different light than most, but I don't believe he murdered his own child because of a few dolllars a month in child support.

[greg]

Sharon,

I'm sorry about the loss of your cousin. Our prayers are with you. For myself, I will continue to speak out and write against the death penalty. It's a barbaric practice that needs to be stopped. Thank you for stopping by the blog. Grace and peace.