Death penalty opponents say execution of Marvin Wilson was a crime against humanity
By Ima Schmuck
The Unconventional Gazette / August 9, 2012
On Tuesday, the State of Texas executed Marvin Wilson for a vicious murder he committed 20 years ago. His execution created a worldwide uproar because death penalty opponents claimed that his IQ of 61 was too low for him to understand that he was being put to death or why he was about to be executed. They accuse the state of murdering a ‘mentally disabled’ man. Wilson is the seventh person put to death by Texas so far this year and there are nine more Texas death row inmates scheduled to be executed before the end of the year.
The Unconventional Gazette contacted a number of persons on both sides of the death penalty issue, either in person or by phone, to obtain their views of the Wilson Execution. Here is how they responded to the question: How do you feel about the execution of Marvin Wilson by the State of Texas?
Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International: A mentally disabled man has died at the hands of the Texas murder machine. Mr. Wilson’s 61 IQ prevented him from understanding that he was being put to death, nor was he capable of understanding why he was being executed. His execution was murder, pure and simple.
Every time the United States executes someone it is committing a crime against humanity and Texas is the worst criminal of all! Amnesty International and the European Union consider Texas to be a state murder machine. Yes that is what Texas is, a murder machine!
Dora Liston, Head of Australians Against the Death Penalty: Putting a mentally disabled man to death is an act of unthinkable depravity. Amnesty International is right on when it calls Texas a murder machine. That is why I am affiliated with the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
The death penalty is a rotten piece of law – the political stance behind the death penalty law is sickening. This flawed, capricious, discriminative, racist and politically corrupt barbaric punishment of death, which has been proven time and time again to be riddled with legal errors, is a government’s ultimate power of control and terror over society. You don’t have to be a scholar to understand this fact – history shows the truth. State sanctioned executions are crimes against humanity!
In my opinion, correctional officers who support the brutality of state-sanctioned killing should not be employed in any capacity with caged human beings, just as people who dislike animals would never be granted employment caring for caged animals. Many correctional officers’ predatory animalistic behavior towards prisoners makes some prisoners behave like predators. It’s called Karma!
Philipp Rosler, head of Germany’s Free Democratic Party: The execution of Herr Wilson is simply outrageous. How any civilized nation can put to death a retarded person is beyond my comprehension. It reminds me of when Adolf Hitler ordered the extermination of all 'mental degenerates.' As for the death penalty, I have introduced legislation for the European Union to ban the exportation of any drugs that could be used to carry out executions.
Rev. Al Sharpton, head of National Action Network and host of MSNBC’s PoliticsNation talk show: The State of Texas has murdered my black brother Marvin Wilson. Had I known earlier that Marvin was an African-American, I would have been down in Texas leading demonstrations against his execution. It is obvious to me that Marvin is a victim of the racism that is so prevalent throughout Texas.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, head of the Rainbow Coalition: Marvin Wilson was a victim of racism. Had he been white he would have never been sentenced to death. The fact he was mentally retarded merely adds to the injustice perpetrated by the State of Texas.
Rick Perry, Governor of Texas: I've never struggled with Wilson’s IQ at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place of which -- when someone commits the most heinous of crimes against our citizens, they get a fair hearing, they go through an appellate process, they go up to the Supreme Court of the United States, if that's required.
But in the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is, you will be executed.
Kinky Friedman, author, musician, humorist, politician: I’m driven to abolish the death penalty in Texas, to make Texas a no-kill state. No killing of horses, dogs, cats or people.
James Clark, Southern California regional organizer for Proposition 34, the November ballot measure to abolish the death penalty: Texas is a state full of ruthless barbarians. Here in California we may sentence people to death, but we don’t execute them. It all started with that wonderful lady, the late Rose Byrd. Her appointment as chief justice of the state Supreme Court was the best appointment Gov. Brown ever made. Thanks in large part to Rose, we now have more than 700 inmates on death row and none of them will ever see the executioner’s needle jammed into the veins of their arms.
Felix Fairweather, San Francisco gay rights activist and founder of American Society of Master Masturbators: Normally you have to provide us with a sworn affidavit that you’ve been masturbating at least once a week for 10 years before you qualify for membership in ASMM, but we’ve given every death row inmate in the United States an honorary membership certificate as a Master Masturbator. We mourn the loss of Marvin Wilson as a valued member.
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN): I am a strong believer in states rights. If the State of Texas believed Wilson fit to be executed, then it had every right to put him to death. Personally, I support the death penalty. I think some of the liberals against capital punishment should be horsewhipped. And the Europeans should keep their noses out of our business.
Ann Coulter, author and syndicated columnist: I think that Wilson and his supporters were gaming the system. He was no more retarded than I am. As a social conservative I believe in the death penalty. And to the late Mr. Wilson, I say, adios and good riddance!
Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona: The execution of Marvin Wilson? My only problem with putting that scumbag to death is that it took 20 years to do it.
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