Too Much Doubt

The last two weeks have been tough. First, on September 6, 2011, Judge Jeffrey Manning of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas formally sentenced William Poplawski to death. Then, after an evidentiary hearing that took 2 & a half days, the same Judge Manning denied PCRA relief to Richard Baumhammers FROM THE BENCH. No need to think about, it, Judge, it's only a CAPITAL CASE! But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a great editorial today, comparing the callousness of Rep. Ron Paul's answer to Wolf Blitzer's question about an indigent man who had no money nor health insurance but collapsed and needed six months of health care by saying that in a free society, people have to have responsibility for themselves (in other words, if he dies, he dies) with the reaction to Brian Williams' question to Gov. Rick Perry about how many executions over which he's presided as Governor of Texas and the applause of the crowd before Williams even finished the question. Those folks are cold, mean, and selfish. I don't believe that's who we are as a people. And of course, Governor Perry and other Texas governors have presided over the executions of people who were very likely innocent of the crimes -- like Cameron Todd Willingham, Gary Graham, and Leonel Herrera.