Dominique Green became the 17th Texas inmate to be executed tonight. The victim's family opposed the execution:

In a rare face-to-face session in a Texas prison between a death row inmate and a relative of a murder victim, Andre Lastrapes-Luckett met for 90 minutes Monday with the man convicted of killing his father.

"Texas is going to put a righteous person to die like an animal, putting him on a table, strapping him up, putting those needles in his arms, putting him to sleep," Lastrapes-Luckett said. "We're not dogs. We're human beings just like everybody else. He's a human being, just like me, just like you."

The execution lasted nine minutes.

Green gasped slightly a couple of times as the lethal drugs took effect and was pronounced dead nine minutes late, at 7:59 p.m.

Who is Troy Kell and why should he be saved? TalkLeft reader Grace Lewis provides this answer:

Troy Kell began paying a steep price for his youthful rage at 18 in a Nevada desert with a life sentence without parole. He was put away with his life oscillating between the banal and the bizarre, existing in a world of repression and violence and racism, a world of killers, rapists, robbers, sexual predators. He continued into this nightmarish existence and, several years down the road, he kills another prisoner, Mr. Lonnie Blackmon, with all the hatred he can bestow.

Both of these prisoners thrown together under these bizarre conditions. - all of the ingredients for a psychic stew designed to deteriorate and erode one's humanity, designed by the State with full knowledge of its effects. Mr. Blackmon certainly deserved better, and through his death we the Citizens can get a good look at what it is like on the inside. His death was not in vain.

Mr. Kell, now backed into a death row corner, the harshest punishment short of death, with solitary confinement, around-the-clock lock-in, no-contact visits, no prison jobs, no educational programs by which to grow, psychiatric treatment facilities designed only to drug you into a coma. He has suffered and will continue to suffer until the day he too shall die...that is certain, and that should be enough. He should not be put to death.

No one should be put to death. As this Sydney Morning Herald editorial stated the other day:

No society grows from its inhumanity; it just diminishes.

The execution of Edward Green went forward tonight. For those that don't believe there's a problem with the mix of lethal drugs administered, here's how it went for Mr. Green:

As the lethal drugs began taking effect, Green wheeze and grimaced. He said something unintelligible and gasped. Ten minute later at 8:21 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead.

Green's mother sobbed uncontrollably as she watched her son die. She collapsed and had to be assisted from the room. A second witness was placed in a wheelchair briefly.

His attorneys lost a last appeal to stay his execution pending a review of 280 newly discovered misplaced boxes of evidence. Despite requests for a moratorium on Harris County executions from the police chief and a state senator, Texas Governor Perry refused to issue one. Here's some background on the Houston lab scandal.

John Kerry is concerned about wrongful convictions and the possibility for error in our capital defense system. He has suported a moratorium on federal death penalties if elected. Here's more on his position on the death penalty:

The Houston Chronicle joins the call for a moratorium on texecutions in Harris County, Texas until the lab mess is straightened out. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal needs to step up to the plate and add his support.

Houston police have sorted through about one-quarter of the evidence they stumbled across in August in 280 dusty, disintegrating boxes. Texas should stop carrying out executions of death row inmates from Harris County at least until that process, believed to involve some 8,000 cases, is complete.

Two Harris County men on death row are scheduled for execution next week. Nine others are set for execution through March, including seven whose cases were investigated by the Houston Police Department. More than 150 other men and women from Harris County are awaiting lethal injection but have no execution dat.

The Houston police chief and a state senator support a moratorium. The Chronicle says Rosenthal should do the same:

Unfortunately, Rosenthal has chosen to duck the issue by pointing out that he lacks the legal authority to postpone executions. He should gather the courage to stand up for justice.

Some background on the Houston lab scandal is here.

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt and State Sen. Rodney Ellis are calling for a moratorium on executions in Harris County, Texas due to the uncertainty of lab evidence used to obtain convictions...and the number of exonerations. Any final decision is up to the courts.

"I think we now have clearly reached a point where we have to stop carrying out executions until this mess in our crime lab is cleaned up," Ellis, D-Houston, said during a news conference.

The death penalty debate is growing. Here is an excellent speech by Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center to the American Correctional Association (prison guards.) It outlines all that is wrong with the death penalty. It's not new, but it's a keeper for all who are called upon to speak on the subject. His conclusion:

The death penalty is literally falling apart at the seams. Judging by the 50% decline in death sentences, by the growing rejection of this punishment around the world, and by the decreasing support even in this country, it is likely that its days are numbered. I believe that we are seeing a trend in society to put its trust in the correctional system that is already keeping society safe from over 99% of violent convicted criminals. I believe the correctional system would do a much better job with the people who are currently sentenced to death. It would not be satisfied that it has "discharged its whole duty when it has punished" but "having raised him up," it would meet its "further duty to aid in holding him up," regardless of how terrible the crime. Of one thing I am sure: the death penalty system has been tried and it has failed.

This is a fascinating story of two people who, like many others, fell in love and created a daughter. There the similarities end.

Five-year-old Gabriela Green has never hugged her father. She knows his voice only through the telephone of a death row visitors' stall. And one day soon, she may see him, barricaded behind a Plexiglas window, for the last time.

Gabriela's mother, Tameika East-Green was a prison guard who fell in love with Edward Green III, a death row inmate. Mr. Green, now 30, has been on death row for almost 12 years. His execution is scheduled for October 5.

"People always want to know, 'How can you have a 5-year-old-child with a man who has been incarcerated for 12 years?' " said Tameika East-Green, the condemned inmate's wife. "I tell them I used to work at the prison."

The Lima (Ohio) News features a two part series with interviews of death row inmates.

The inmates were asked about appeals, about waiving appeals, about the prospect of being executed, and about how they spend their days. Some of their answers might make you mad. One comment was just plain depressing. What a waste. These are people who, if they hadn’t gone astray, might have led productive lives, allowing their victims to do the same.

One of the inmates interviewed is Kenneth Richey:

Ohio death row inmate Kenneth Richey is locked in a cell 23 hours a day and sleeps on a plastic mattress atop a warped sheet of steel. “It sucks,” he said. “This ain’t no … damn picnic. People out there think we’re having a pic-nic; this ain’t no picnic.” ....Living on death row is a tougher punishment than death, he said. “It’s a 24-hour a day torture,” the 40-year-old Richey said. “You have no life. You’re just ex-isting from one day to the next. Believe me, it’s an ... existence you don’t want.”

Richey maintains his innocence. Amnesty International says his treatment is one of the most barbaric cases it's seen.

Part One of the series is here.

Last week we reported on a new study finding that death sentences in the U.S. have sharply declined. The San Antonio Express-News today informs this is not the case with Texas.

Courts nationwide handed out about half as many death sentences in each of the past four years as they did on average in the 1990s....Death penalties in Texas declined only 6 percent in that time span.

A new report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center shows death sentences in the U.S. have dropped in each of the past four years.

The Death Penalty Information Center, which is to release the report tomorrow, attributes the decline largely to growing public awareness of death-row exonerations and concerns that innocent people might be sentenced to die.

John Kerry has said he supports a moratorium on the death penalty.

Texas death row inmate Scott Pannetti filled out his last wish packet with some odd requests. His lawyers say he's insane and should not be put to death.

The letter from a death row inmate to his parents complained about occult activity but it also addressed more mundane matters. It said, "Mom, please send money." The prisoner's preparations for his execution were similarly outlandish and conventional. Scott Panetti wanted Jesus Christ to witness his execution and he requested a last meal with pie, coffee and a fresh cigar — preferably Honduran. "No, I repeat, no Cuban cigars," he wrote in the packet of forms that death row inmates receive when their executions approach.

One shrink says he understands his death sentence. Others say differently.

Psychologist Mark Cunningham rejected the suggestion that Panetti can understand his death sentence if he can rationally discuss other topics. Cunningham said Panetti seems most lucid when he's in familiar surroundings or talking about mundane topics. But as his anxiety increases, so do his delusions. And, when it comes to Panetti's death sentence, Cunningham said he was convinced the convict believes he is being punished for preaching by the forces of evil.

His trial was a mess.

Panetti, who turned his 1995 trial into a spectacle by defending himself while wearing a cowboy outfit and trying to subpoena God, claims the state wants to kill him because he preaches the Gospel.

The court heard two days of testimony this week. Panetti's family attended.

Say hello to the Deadline Blog--by the creators of the acclaimed death penalty documentary Deadline. From the about page:

Welcome to Deadline’s official blog! As you might not know, a film like ours getting such a large broadcast is a huge opportunity for us (and the documentary film world at large). We are launching an ambitious outreach campaign and learning as we go. Here we’ll chronicle some of the highlights of the ride we’ve all been on. The writers are either the filmmakers themselves, or have been officially invited to post entries. Some upcoming guest bloggers include Diann Rust-Tierney from the ACLU and Governor Ryan himself so check back often. In addition, daily, we will have an open thread where you can ask questions, talk to us (and one another) and most importantly keep the dialogue going about what is going on in the criminal justice system in the United States. We hope you enjoy it!