Monday, August 04, 2008

Vox Populi: The Last Words of Christopher Emmett

The State of Virginia executed Christopher Emmett last week for beating a co-worker to death with a lamp so he could steal his money to buy crack.

His last words: "Tell the Governor he just lost my vote. Y'all hurry this along. I'm dying to get out of here."

This was even better than Tim McVeigh quoting the line about being "the captain of my fate" from the poem "Invictus."

If there's any time when you are NOT the captain of your fate, it is just before you are executed pursuant to a Court Order.

Anyway, you simply cannot make this stuff up.

2 comments:

Polycarp said...

According to AOL, rapist and murderer Richard Cooey scheduled in Ohio claims that, at 5'6" and 267 pounds, he is too fat to execute. His own obesity renders the procedure cruel and unusual, his lawyer claims.

The implications for the death row chapter of Jenny Craig's are, of course, deep.

tmfw said...

I saw that. While I am no proponent of capital punishment, I am a proponent of ignoring ridiculous legal arguments. While I have neither raped nor murdered anybody, I would have to think that the exertional demands of either act are far more taxing on an obese person than getting an injection while in the prone position.

I would imagine that the courts will make short shrift of this foolishness. In Georgia, they would have shot him just for bringing it up.