Two Cases for the Death Penalty

...or at least life without the hope of parole.

Today in Huntsville, Texas there is a news story. For those of you unfortunate to not have been born here, Huntsville is the Home of the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Not just A prison, Walls is THE prison. All the executions in Texas are carried out there. Our first story is from San Antonio and is what I think is the strongest case for why we need the death penalty

ONE:

Larry Don McQuay (more here and here) Has been moved from the TDCJ unit that has been his home to a county jail in San Antonio. This move has been made in preparation for his impending release from custody. Yes this man has been granted parole after serving 8 years of a twenty year sentence.

The outrage is that he was paroled in 1996 after serving 6 of 8 years for the same type of crime, child molestation.
Houston-based victims rights group Justice For All says that in 1995, McQuay told them he would kill his next victim if he wasn't castrated. It's unknown whether he was granted his request. – Houston Chronicle

There is no proof that he was castrated, but even if he was is the mental illness that causes child molestation gone? In an 1995 survey of convicted molesters 72% of molestation reported involved masterbating the child, and 31% had also preformed oral sex on the child (Elliot, Browne, and Kicoyne, 1995) Even if they did remove his Johnson, that does not mean that the mental drive, the desire will be gone, it will just mean that he can not penetrate another child. He still has the ability to harm them. He admitted molesting over 240 children before he was convicted for molesting a 6 year old boy in 1996. He was out of prison less than a year before he was convicted again this time for molesting a little girl in San Antonio. This man is the Poster Child for the Death Penalty.


TWO:
Execution looms for inmate paroled three times

Court documents indicated Cook was driving on U.S. Highway 59 near Shepherd, in San Jacinto County, where Pursley had gotten into an argument with his wife while attending a gathering at his mother-in-law's house. Prosecutors speculated Pursley was walking along the highway and Cook, who was known to pick up hitchhikers, offered Pursley a ride.

Somehow both wound up at Cook's trailer home March 28, 1997, and at some point the pair drove into the woods in the northeast part of Polk County where Cook was beaten to death and robbed of his rings. Witnesses told authorities they saw Pursley driving Cook's car later and that he traded the rings for drugs.

…DNA evidence found 18 months later on a cigarette butt in the ashtray of Cook's car was used to link Pursley to the vehicle, according to court documents.

This man was given more chances that most to turn his life around, but he forfeit his right to life, when he chose to take another’s life with evil intent.