Multiple Murderer Executed in Texas

A man convicted of murdering two teenaged girls in 1988 was executed yesterday, Juan Lozano and Michael Graczyx report for AP.  Garcia White killed five people altogether. The appeals dragged on for well over three decades despite the lack of any doubt of guilt.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who witnessed White’s death, lamented that it took some 30 years to carry out the jury’s death verdict as multiple appeals in White’s case worked through the courts.

“The suffering of surviving (victims’) family members is just unspeakable,” she said. “At least it’s over.”

Despite the enactment of reforms of collateral review long ago, courts continue to sabotage those reforms by finding ways to drag out the process anyway. There simply should be no judicial review after the initial round of review absent a substantial claim of actual “got the wrong guy” innocence, not mental defenses. Leave everything else to executive clemency.