Daily Report/August 23, 2007
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes From Around The Human Experience...
DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS: Texas executed Johnny Ray Connor, 32, Wednesday night, punishment for killing a Houston convenience store clerk during a 1999 robbery.
Get Out Your History Books: Well, this one was - if not news, they execute people left and right in Texas, after all - at least noteworthy: it was the 400th execution in Texas since the death penalty was resumed in 1982. The first was on 12/7/82, so it took 9,027 days to get to the 400 mark, which is an execution every 22.565 days.
Finding Your Sea Legs: Texas got off to a slow start in the execution racket, with 454 days passing between executions number one and two. Number three, however, was just 17 days later, though it would ultimately take Texas 4,685 days to get to the 100 mark, on 10/4/95.
Can We Pick This Up A Bit?: Once Texas got into the swing of things, though, only 1,562 days passed until number 200 on 1/12/00, and just 1,164 days passed between numbers 200 and 300, on 3/20/03.
Don't Tell Me It's Those Liberals Mucking Things Up: The pace slowed considerably after that, however, and 1,617 days passed between number 300 and Connor's execution Wednesday night.
When You're Hot You're Hot: Connor was the 21st person executed in Texas this year, and Texas has three more executions scheduled for August, though the projected 2007 total of 30 will fall short of the 40 executions back in the salad days of 2000.
Time After Time: Connor spent 2,905 days on death row, almost eight years, less than the Texas average of a little over nine years. This comes out to, more or less, 69,720 hours. While official figures aren't available, it is not completely unreasonable to presume Connor was subjected to the usual death row regime of spending 23 hours each day locked in his cell, meaning he spent 66,815 hours - 7.6 years - in his cell.
The Benefit of the Doubt: Even if Connor was allowed to work four hours a day at a prison job, and allowing for another hour outside his cell, he still spent seven years and four months in solitary confinement.
MEANWHILE, FROM THE JAPAN DESK: Japan executed three men Thursday morning (Tokyo time).
Everything Is Relative: If you think death row in America is harsh - and, honestly, we should probably be embarrassed about it - groove on those zany Japanese. In America, at least, the condemned know when they are going to die; a luxury denied most of the non-condemned population. It is also a luxury denied those on Japanese death row: in Japan, you don't have a clue when you are going to be hanged. You are convicted, you are sentenced to death, you exhaust your appeals and then you wait.
And Wait...And Wait: In Japan, you are given an hour's notice of your execution. That's it. I get more notice when my woman is going to make dinner. Between 8am and 8:30am is when the guards come and collect those that are going to die. If the guards knock on your door, you have an hour to live. You are told to clean your cell, pray to whomever you feel will do you the most good, and, produce a will.
On The Brighter Side: If no one knocks on your door, or if they did and they end up bringing you back because they took the wrong person, which has happened, you have survived one more day. You literally wake up every morning not knowing if this day is your last. And Japan has some death row stays that make the twenty year stays now popping up in America seem short. People have spent over 40 years on death row. 40 years of waking up every day not knowing if you are going to be hanged or not. Feeble men have been wheel chaired to the gallows.
For Planning Purposes: Your family will be notified the day of your execution, too, probably after the fact.
AS LONG AS YOUR HISTORY BOOKS ARE OUT: The Texas Rangers proved, as if we needed another example, that Texans do nothing by halves, setting a modern Major League record Wednesday night, scoring 30 runs in a 30-3 victory in the first game of a doubleheader in Baltimore. The old record was 29 runs, done by the Boston Red Sox in 1950 and the Chicago White Sox in 1955.
Fun Fact: The all-time major league record for runs in a game is 36, done by the Chicago Cubs, then known as the Colts, in 1897.
Oh, By The Way: The Rangers also set major league marks for most RBI's in a game, 30, and their 57 at-bats tied the American League record.
One More Thing:The Rangers won the second game, too, 9-7. Their 39 runs in a doubleheader set an American League mark, as well.
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