This morning Brett Hartman was executed by the State of Ohio. We send our condolences to the family and friends of Brett, who have stood with him till the end. He has always remained he is innocent of the crime he was convicted for. There was no motive for this senseless killing, that Brett allegedly did. Why would he do what he was accused of doing and what he was condemned for?
That it was all politics is clear: there was the untested DNA, the change of the time of death of the victim, making Brett's alibi's not valid, the jailhouse snitch, who was paid to testify falsely, etc. The prosecutors made sure their story fitted the outcome they wanted. We know justice is not done: there is too much doubt, and to kill someone is always wrong, whether it is the State that carries out a killing or a lone gunman/woman. What if they did kill the wrong man? How are the killers going to face their conscience? Where is the "rehabilitation" in the death penalty?
Brett is free now, and those who have blood on their hands, have to one day explain their wrongdoings to higher instances than an Ohio court of law.
Community resource for monitoring the treatment of prisoners in Ohio. Documenting Human Rights Abuses for those imprisoned. Prisoners speaking up for Humanity. "May the groans of the prisoners come before you; with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die. Psalm 79:10-12"
A reflection
Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal’s deed, however calculated, can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date on which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not to be encountered in private life.
- Albert Camus, in: Reflections on the Guillotine
- Albert Camus, in: Reflections on the Guillotine
