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Alternative Person of the Year: A Death Row Inmate

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Tue Dec 26, 2006 at 01:36:52 AM EST
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WaPo Columnist Richard Cohen names his person of the year: Gregory Thompson, a delusional death row inmate:

Thompson, 45, is delusional. He is also paranoid, schizophrenic and depressed. For these ailments, he receives daily doses of drugs and, twice a month, anti-psychotic injections. The state of Tennessee wants very much to put him to death for the horrendous 1985 murder of Brenda Blanton Lane, of which there is no doubt about his guilt.

There is grave doubt, though, about the constitutionality, not to mention the decency, of executing an insane man. Thus the 12 pills Thompson takes every day. The idea, according to a recent account of his case in the Wall Street Journal, is to make him sane enough to be put to death.

As Cohen notes:

Maybe, though, Americans are beginning to understand that we just don't need the death penalty, that it makes us no safer and demeans us as a people. The case of Gregory Thompson is a case in point. He was probably insane when he murdered Brenda Blanton Lane but will be deemed sane if and when he's executed. He's my person of the year -- a fleetingly sane man in the maw of a thoroughly insane system.

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    Alternative Person of the Year: A Death Row Inmate | 3 comments (3 topical)

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    social good (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by diogenes on Tue Dec 26, 2006 at 08:15:13 PM EST
    If he was so obviously "probably insane" when he committed the murder, then if his lawyer didn't try that defense the case could be reviewed on grounds of the lawyer's incompetence.  
    In fact, the murder took place during a carjacking.  No one seems to think that Thompson was driven to do it by delusional forces.  He was an incompetent carjacker who used excessive force.

    So when he is relatively well he murders people.  When he is insane he is delusional, increasing the risk of violent acting out if he has been violent when he was less psychotic in the past.  

    He is a risk to fellow inmates and to prison guards.  It's fine to oppose the death penalty as long as one acknowledges this real risk as a cost to some innocent people.  If he's dead, he'll hurt no one else.

    Some people like to complain that George Bush doesn't send his daughters to fight in Iraq.  I wonder how many death penalty opponents here are eager to send their children to be corrections officers in maximum security prisons where prisoners who injure or kill guards can neither be unofficially beaten (violates their rights) or executed as deterrants.

    Life in prison does not guarantee no future victims.  

    "Make 'em sane before we kill 'em,"... (none / 0) (#1)
    by Bill Arnett on Tue Dec 26, 2006 at 12:32:27 PM EST
    ...yet another hallmark of American Justice.

    they also......... (none / 0) (#2)
    by cpinva on Tue Dec 26, 2006 at 03:06:09 PM EST
    have to be conscious, before they can be executed.

    useless as i find mr. cohen 98% of the time, and i don't know that i'd agree with his recommendation of this guy for "person of the year", once in a blue moon he comes up with something.

    without in any way discounting the horror of the crime, the terror of the victim, or the agony of the family, what possible societal good can come of putting this individual to death? an individual it doesn't even seem clear has a clue as to what he's done?

    something i am curious about, having been fortunate to not find myself in similar circumstances, so far anyway: do the victim's family/friends really find "closure" from the execution? do they suddenly, at the moment life leaves the murderer's body, find peace?

    why do i get the feeling, when all appeals, etc. have been exhausted, and his date with the executioner finally arrives, he's going to ask that they save the rest of his final meal, so he can have it later as a midnite snack?

    Alternative Person of the Year: A Death Row Inmate | 3 comments (3 topical)

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