Texas inmate executed for killing wife in 2005
Source: AP
By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) A Texas inmate with a history of violence against women was executed Wednesday evening for fatally shooting his wife, who had feared she would never get out of her marriage alive.
John Gardner, 64, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the January 2005 slaying of Tammy Gardner. Prosecutors said the couple was getting divorced when Gardner broke into his wifes North Texas home and shot her in the head as she was sitting in bed. She died two days later at a hospital.
Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Gardner, strapped to the death chamber gurney, turned his head and apologized several times to his wifes son, daughter and mother, who watched through a window a few feet away.
I would like to say sorry for your grief, he said. I hope what Im doing today will give you peace, joy, closure, whatever it takes to forgive. I am sorry. I know you cannot forgive me, but I hope one day you will.
This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows John Gardner. Gardner a Texas inmate with a history of violence against women faces execution for fatally shooting his wife, who had repeatedly told friends and family she would never get out of her marriage alive. Gardner is set to receive a lethal injection Wednesday Jan. 15, 2019 for the January 2005 slaying of Tammy Gardner.(Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
Read more: https://apnews.com/b175248d6adfdc3e5f1ff788e8bd925c
Skittles
(153,169 posts)in theaters now
dware
(12,393 posts)there are just some heinous crimes that test my beliefs.
canetoad
(17,167 posts)You can disregard every word that follows it.
dware
(12,393 posts)lapfog_1
(29,205 posts)canetoad
(17,167 posts)That's what I meant.
Thanks!
cab67
(2,993 posts)...one can be staunchly anti-death penalty while not always mourning those who are executed.
TomSlick
(11,098 posts)The pro-death group can always point to a heinous crime as a justification for the state killing.
I have worked in the legal system my entire working life. The system is simply too imperfect to include the possibility of capital punishment.
dware
(12,393 posts)I didn't say it destroyed my beliefs.
TomSlick
(11,098 posts)I have a hair-trigger on this issue. I've tried criminal and civil cases for thirty-odd years. It's the best system possible but it's still dependent on people doing the right thing, which often does not occur. Human lives ought not be at risk in such a system.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)if not, definitely go see it, TomSlick
it emphasizes exactly what you say.
TomSlick
(11,098 posts)I also generally can't abide movies or TV shows about lawyers or cases. The inaccuracies drive me nuts. I watched A Few Good Men at home and spent a lot of the time screaming at the television.
LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)for justice in the south.
TomSlick
(11,098 posts)Then again other than military justice, it's the only justice system I've seen.
My suspicion is that any justice system that relies on people doing the right thing - that is to say, all of them - can be problematic. Again, my suspicion is that it would be eye-opening for people across the country to take one of the implicit bias tests.
My point is that knowing that any justice system will almost necessarily be skewed by implicit bias, political motivations, and a host of other things that keep people from doing the right thing. As a result, no justice system ought to be deciding matters of life and death.
marble falls
(57,102 posts)can never be impartially applied. Be strong. The death penalty is wrong.
OnlinePoker
(5,722 posts)A man named Ron Williamson was on death row for 11 years and was within a week of execution twice because the police chose to ignore the obvious suspect, who was selling drugs to the police and was their only witness that Williamson was in the bar where the victim worked the night she died. He wasn't a "good" man, but, because of his mental health issues (which degraded into psychosis while in prison), but he was a great person to pin the crime on. His co-accused, who was jailed for life in the crime simply being a friend of Williamson was also exonerated at the same time.
Gore1FL
(21,132 posts)1> Fuck Him.
2> The death penalty is wrong in all cases.
marble falls
(57,102 posts)Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)
dalton99a This message was self-deleted by its author.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)My focus is on the misogyny in our lives that results in the suffering and death of so many women in our society.While Gardner had his time on death row to "focus the mind" on his violence against the women he terrorized, his victims had no such peaceful contemplations -- onlu terror, fear and constant physical suffering. A drug put him to sleep, he snored and was no more. His wives, his victims, lived in fear, terror and pain and died the same way.
How can we not see what the root problem is here.