Executed Mississippi Inmate's Last Words: Vote For Obama

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:27:27 PM EST
Tags: Barack Obama, 2008 (all tags)

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James Leo Bishop was executed in Mississippi last night. His last words included an apology to his victims and a request for people to vote for Sen. Barack Obama:

Before he died Wednesday evening, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop apologized to his victim's family, thanked America and urged people to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
"For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice," Bishop said.

There's no question Sen. Barack Obama is more attuned to the racial disparity in the application of the death penalty and plight of the wrongly convicted than John McCain. However, he's not a death penalty opponent.

Nonetheless, Mr. Bishop makes the right call between McCain and Obama. May he rest in peace. [More...]

Bishop is "only the eighth person put to death who did not directly kill his victim among the more than 1,100 executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 - not including contract killings."

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Executed Mississippi Inmate's Last Words: Vote For Obama | 32 comments (32 topical)

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I imagine the Republicans will run with it (5.00 / 3) (#2)
by wasabi on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:40:15 PM EST

Maybe they can come up with a ad:

Obama -- Preferred by 4 out of 5 death-row inmates.

Who Needs Republicans (1.00 / 0) (#5)
by squeaky on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:42:44 PM EST

You seem to be doing a fine job of anti Obama campaigning.


Sorry (5.00 / 0) (#7)
by wasabi on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:46:03 PM EST

You missed the snark tag.

Just wait... some a**hat will come up with this argument.


Evidentially (1.00 / 1) (#11)
by squeaky on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:07:19 PM EST

Sorry, I didn't get the snark.

In any case your comment is going to do a fine job of feeding all the TL trolls aka presumptuous McSame supporters.


: So... (none / 0) (#28)
by wasabi on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 07:35:44 PM EST

If I just shut my piehole, all will be well then?

au contraire, O seems to be the one (5.00 / 2) (#16)
by Nettle on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:33:39 PM EST

with an excess of Republicans drooling in his ear.


I don't know what this man's crime was (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by hairspray on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:42:42 PM EST

but it sounds like he was an accessory rather than the killer and that strikes me as wrong. The worst stories about death sentences are when you read of a killer who was treated so rottenly as a child and then grows up to kill. Tammy Faye Tucker was raised by an alcoholic mother who took her to a prositution ring at 14 and left her. She grew up in a hardened gang environmnent and ultimately became a killer. The same story with a couple of Manson "girls". I am opposed to killing these people a second time. The first time was when they were children and the second time when the results of their upbringing kicked in.

yeah, Tammy Faye (none / 0) (#18)
by Nettle on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:37:09 PM EST

The one Bush mocked and mimicked as he stuck out his lips and whimpered. Then he killed her.


That's the one. She was a good prisoner and (none / 0) (#19)
by Angel on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:41:50 PM EST

was helping other inmates, but they killed her anyway. Compassionate conservatism in action.


Karla Faye Tucker (nt) (none / 0) (#25)
by cmugirl on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 07:06:00 PM EST

: You are most correct. (none / 0) (#26)
by Angel on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 07:07:08 PM EST

I don't think that this (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by misspeach2008 on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:45:45 PM EST

will harm Obama and it shouldn't, but it is an example of someone projecting on to Obama what he wants Obama to support, not what Obama's position actually is.

It certainly won't help (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by andgarden on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:46:50 PM EST

Right! The Republicans never miss an opportunity (5.00 / 0) (#12)
by DeborahNC on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:17:38 PM EST

to denigrate a Dem candidate. And if they miss an opportunity, they create one. That's been the Rovian way!


Right! (5.00 / 0) (#13)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:20:48 PM EST

I think Dems no longer can claim (5.00 / 3) (#29)
by Cream City on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 07:45:42 PM EST

the high ground about Rovian tactics. And taking about creativity, the DNC did in the process in ways that even the GOP did not attempt.


: So true. And I read somewhere that Donna B. (5.00 / 1) (#31)
by DeborahNC on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 07:52:22 PM EST

became friends with KKKarl in the past few years, so maybe he clued her in on his expertise in cheating and smearing. Some Dems looked very experienced at both during our primaries. It was disgusting and for me, very disappointing.

: You got that right, Cream City (none / 0) (#33)
by stefystef on Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 10:25:14 AM EST

The way many of the Obama followers have been acting and attacking those who are not supporting Obama really reminds me a lot of 2000. The so-called left has taken on alot of the Republicans' bad habits.

RE: amnesia feels so good (5.00 / 7) (#15)
by Bornagaindem on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:29:12 PM EST

Excuse me but aren't you guys forgetting that Obama is the candidate that wants to extend the death penalty to child rape cases. Where anywhere has he indicated that he is against the death penalty?

I will acknowledge that Obama is sympathetic to the fact that more black men get the death penalty than white men and that he may be interested in that aspect of the whole thing but there we go again projecting our own wishes on the candidate because "gee he must be for or against that because he is so great".

: I'd like to point out (5.00 / 1) (#17)
by CytoEric on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:34:25 PM EST

that james leo bishop was a white man. I don't think it particularly matters, but I have the feeling that several people on this thread assumed he was black.

Obama in my radio, newspaper computer (5.00 / 1) (#21)
by catfish on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:46:33 PM EST

tv he's measuring drapes for the White House and he's all over the Olympics. This is like an assault.

Oh and racial disparity in death penalty is egregious, but yes, Obama wants the death penalty for rapists who do not commit murder. Or at least that's what he said.

That was yesterday. (5.00 / 4) (#22)
by Angel on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:48:38 PM EST

Once he knows felons on death row are supporting him he'll be against the death penalty.


: Hi Sher. Don't be so quiet, join in the (1.00 / 0) (#24)
by Angel on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:55:25 PM EST

conversation. Sitting at your desk giving out ratings must be boring.

: Wow. That was a cheap shot. (none / 0) (#34)
by CaptainAmerica08 on Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 08:46:33 PM EST

He was very well informed, singling (5.00 / 1) (#27)
by Joan in VA on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 07:31:09 PM EST

out his supporters(Dems) and not Obama himself. Regardless, the death penalty is an abomination. The South is especially egregious in it's use.

"Murderers for Obama"? (5.00 / 2) (#30)
by OxyCon on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 07:49:18 PM EST

I'm sure the Repubs will have some fun with this, just like they did with Willie Horton.

As for the death penalty, I believe in the Quaker penitentiary system where instead of killing prisoners, they attempt to extract something good from society's worst offenders in an attempt at redemption.

someone neglected to inform (1.00 / 1) (#32)
by cpinva on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 08:12:07 PM EST

mr. bishop that sen. obama would have happily injected the drugs into his veins, to kill him. the drawback of having no access to current news, i suppose.

Uhhhhh (none / 0) (#8)
by andgarden on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 05:46:27 PM EST

LOL. (none / 0) (#10)
by Pegasus on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:03:24 PM EST

That Willie Horton parallel is clear as mud, no doubt.

Oy, Great family. (none / 0) (#14)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:25:43 PM EST

[Bishop's] younger brother is also incarcerated in Mississippi and is serving time following a manslaughter conviction.

most felons can't vote anyway, right? (none / 0) (#20)
by Nettle on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:45:17 PM EST

Not that this is going to convince Obama to fight for felons' right to vote but he should.

: Wrong. (none / 0) (#23)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:51:22 PM EST

Jackson, MS--Our current Constitution excludes certain felons from having the right to vote. These include criminals convicted of murder, rape, bribery, theft, arson, false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement or bigamy. Yet, there are hundreds of other felonies in which the right to vote is not taken away