Skip to main content
1 comment

Meet the death row inmates that cried, screamed, and hysterically pleaded during the last few minutes as he was being executed

It happening in the United States during the controversial 2000 execution of convicted murderer Gary Graham by the state of Texas. This occurred while George W. Bush was still Governor of Texas, and running for President in a closely-contested electoral campaign, in which he narrowly defeated Al Gore that November.



Graham had been convicted of the murder of a 53-year-old man based on the eyewitness account of one person, and the account of this witness was called into question by others. However, he had unquestionably been on a crime spree at the time, in which he had committed 20 armed robberies, three kidnappings, a rape, and had fired his gun toward at least three other people. He may or may not have committed the murder—but he was clearly a dangerous person, and this may have kept him from getting a fair re-hearing on whether or not he was the one who committed the murder. Many people were arguing that he deserved to die just for all of the other crimes he had committed.

The execution was also controversial because Graham was only 17 at the time when he went on his crime spree; had it happened a few years later, he could not have been sentenced to death. The Supreme Court disallowed the execution of minors in a 2005 court ruling.

In any case, Graham always maintained his innocence in the murder. He received a few stays of execution, but eventually his appeals ran out, and then-Governor Bush refused to intervene. When it came time for him to be executed, Graham (by then calling himself Shaka Sankofa) resisted the efforts of the guards to remove him from his cell, and it took five men to subdue him and strap him to the gurney.

There are no doubt other cases where a person has attempted to violently resist their execution, but Graham’s case is still memorable 17 years later, because it was such a cause célèbre during the election campaign that year.


you can click here to watch the video
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Carolee Schneemann. Kinetic Painting Exhibition at MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt

In this survey, the MMK will present her well-known works and performances side by side with examples rarely or never shown to date, thus drawing attention to new facets of her artistic contribution. . In this survey, the MMK will present her well-known works and performances side by side with examples rarely or never shown to date, thus drawing attention to new facets of her artistic contribution. Carolee Schneemann (* 1939), who was awarded the Golden Lion 2017 of the Biennale di Venezia, went down in art history as a pioneer of performance art. Addressing gender roles, sexuality and the use of the body in art, her works had a trailblazing influence on subsequent generations of artists. In this survey, the MMK will present her well-known works and performances side by side with examples rarely or never shown to date, thus drawing attention to new facets of her artistic contribution. The exhibition will take as its point of departure Schneemann's landscape and portrait paintings o...
Post a Comment
Read more

This week marks the 211th anniversary of The German Coast Rebellion.

On January 8, 1811, enslaved men and women from St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and St. James parishes rose up and walked downriver toward New Orleans. They were armed with few rifles, sabers, machetes, fire-hardened oak sticks, or simply with their tools. After killing two of their enslavers and causing considerable damage to the plantations where they were forced to labor, they participants were stopped only two days later after a battle against the local militia backed by Federal troops. The insurrection started on the property of Manuel Andry, then the head of the local militia of St. John parish. The 1811 revolt had several leaders from various origins, some of them born in Africa. The main leader was Charles Deslondes, a Mulatto born on the plantation of Widow Jean-Baptiste Deslondes. The trial of the participants took place from January 13 to January 15. The judgments were rendered without appeal and death sentences were pronounced. The sentenced called for  each of the c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Popular posts from this blog

How common were instances of sexual abuse in Nazi concentration camps

How common were instances of sexual abuse in Nazi concentration camps. The accounts that rap£ or prostitution was common, Were the guards were given "free reign" over the prisoners given view of them as subhuman The Nazis sort of developed a network of state-controlled brothels during the war. This included both the civilian and military brothels. The Nazis even set up brothels for the forced labor inmates that helped with the German war effort as incentives for higher production from prisoners in camps. Back then these brothels were suppose to serving several needs. For the soldiers that were far away from home, the Nazis thought that having these brothels would reduce the possibility of rape in occupied lands and reducing the sexual relations with impure local women or forced laborer's, as well. Heck, the Nazis tried to use these brothel women to cure homosexuality as a treatment with male prisoners that were gay. Regular German women were exempt from serving in these b...
Post a Comment
Read more

The prisoners in concentration camps have sex with each other

 The prisoners in concentration camps have sex with each other Steady on. Nearly all concentration camps were single-sex, and at those that held both men and women the sexes were usually kept separate, though at Auschwitz III (Monowitz) and possibly also some other sub-camps they worked together. At extermination camps (where the sexes were not separated) most of the prisoners were killed within 24 hours of arrival. Prisoners did not have privacy. Remember that at the time most people had a horror of same-sex relations, especially between men. However, some Kapos and even guards forced prisoners to have sex with them. In Night Elie Wiesel relates how he found his Kapo having sex with a female prisoner, and he (Wiesel) was given 25 lashes for finding them having sex.* In the Women’s Camp at least one guard forced another woman to have sex with her, and at many camps there was a piepel (camp bum boy). *He also describes the hanging of the piepel of a Blockältester ( ‘block senior’). ...
Post a Comment
Read more