The execution was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected claims by Brewer's attorneys that prosecutors at a 2009 resentencing trial had relied on false and discredited expert testimony.

A Texas man who said his death sentence was based on false and unscientific expert testimony was executed Thursday evening for killing a man during a robbery decades ago.

Brent Ray Brewer, 53, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the April 1990 death of Robert Laminack. The inmate was pronounced dead at 6:39 p.m. local time, 15 minutes after the chemicals began flowing.

Prosecutors had said Laminack, 66, gave Brewer and his girlfriend a ride to a Salvation Army location in Amarillo when he was stabbed in the neck and robbed of $140.

Brewer’s execution came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to step in over the inmate’s claims that prosecutors had relied on false and discredited expert testimony at his 2009 resentencing trial.

  • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    This is gonna sound fucked up, but him being murdered by the state was much more of a mercy than being raped, tortured and enslaved behind bars for the entirety of his natural life because of concern he may have been innocent.

    Like people dismiss the state taking away large chunks of people’s lives because of the “at least they’re alive” argument, but you can use that to justify rape and abuse and all sorts of things that are very clearly worse than death.

    If I was in his shoes, I’d have demanded expedited execution and so would all of you, if you knew truly what goes on behind bars.

    • hh93@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      Perhaps you should do something about that “raped, tortured and enslaved” part so the death penalty seems better than prison? Prison is supposed to keep dangerous people away from society and rehabilitate them if possible.

      People in prison should be safe from such crimes happening to them.

      I really don’t understand how people are okay with this “he’s going to be killed in prison” sentiment of someone is sent there for very bad crimes when his sentence is “prison” and not “death”. Prison should mean being locked away safely from society having time to think about their crimes - nothing else.

      • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        If you cared, why wouldn’t you go out and force them to change instead of arguing on the Internet with an elephant?

        The only way I as a pink drunken elephant could do anything about it is if I butchered millions of people in a brutal civil war to shut down the entire jail system and violently overthrow the U.S. government. Is that what you want, or are you demanding I instead submit to your opinion and advocate your perspective and feelings on the matter like some pink drunken robot? As if you ranting on the internet about it has done anything to change the system or save any lives?

        Grow the fuck up. My opinion on the matter will not change and your mental gymnastics won’t change the fact that death really is better than prison in the U.S.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
          02·
          8 months ago

          The only way I as a pink drunken elephant could do anything about it is if I butchered millions of people in a brutal civil war to shut down the entire jail system and violently overthrow the U.S. government.

          🥵