A Texas man who unsuccessfully challenged the safety of the state’s lethal injection drugs and raised questions about evidence used to persuade a jury to sentence him to death for killing an elderly woman decades ago was executed late Tuesday.
Jedidiah Murphy, 48, was pronounced dead after an injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the October 2000 fatal shooting of 80-year-old Bertie Lee Cunningham of the Dallas suburb of Garland. Cunningham was killed during a carjacking.
“To the family of the victim, I sincerely apologize for all of it,” Murphy said while strapped to a gurney in the Texas death chamber and after a Christian pastor, his right hand on Murphy’s chest, prayed for the victim’s family, Murphy’s family and friends and the inmate.
“I hope this helps, if possible, give you closure,” Murphy said.
Fair enough. Your first comment seemed like it was implying that the guy shouldn’t receive said final punishment simply because he’d matured by that point. As for the length of time it takes to hand down a sentence of execution…I know what you mean when you say it seems cruel, but for reasons I think are pretty obvious, I don’t feel bad for the guy. The longer it takes, the more of his life he can at least live, if not enjoy. Also, when the sentence is death, I’m kind of glad it takes such a laborious process to implement–we shouldn’t be executing people unless there’s a clear consensus among several judges that it’s the appropriate sentence. As for the death penalty itself, I have mixed feelings.