Ainda sobre a pena de morte nos EUA

No mesmo dia da execução de Troy Davis, houve outra nos EUA - Lawrence Brewer. Neste caso não há qualquer dúvida sobre a sua culpa e o crime parece-me muito pior: Brewer e dois cúmplices (supremacistas brancos) ataram James Byrd Jr.  (aparentemente escolhido apenas por ser negro) à parte de trás de um camião e arrastaram-no durante quilómetros, até à morte.

No entanto, até à execução, houve quem tentasse salvar a vida de Lawrence Brewer, tendo apelado para que a pena fosse comutada - o filho da vítima:

As Texas prepares to execute one of his father's killers, Ross Byrd hopes the state shows the man the mercy his father, James Byrd Jr., never got when he was dragged behind a truck to his death.

"You can't fight murder with murder," Ross Byrd, 32, told Reuters late Tuesday, the night before Wednesday's scheduled execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer for one of the most notorious hate crimes in modern times.

"Life in prison would have been fine. I know he can't hurt my daddy anymore. I wish the state would take in mind that this isn't what we want."

(...)

Byrd says the execution of Brewer is simply another expression of the hate shown toward his father on that dark night in 1998. Everybody, he said, including the government, should choose not to continue that cycle.

"Everybody's in that position," he said. "And I hope they will stand back and look at it before they go down that road of hate. Like Ghandi said, an eye for an eye, and the whole world will go blind."

[Reuters]