This gave me chills

[lagizma]

Executed man's last request honored -- pizza for homeless(CNN) -- Hundreds of homeless people in Nashville, Tennessee, ate well Wednesday evening -- all in the name of a man who the state put to death just hours earlier

Comments

[superjen]

i get sad considering there are people who have committed equal or more heinous crimes who weren't strung out on substances and didn't deserve another chance but got one anyway. i have a feeling he was only sent to death because he killed a cop; hopefully someday people will realize drug addicts aren't second-class citizens, they are just sick, and they need help just like the rest of us.

[lagizma]

Amen.

[superjen]

as an american, i am very conflicted about my ideas of justice. obviously, what we are taught as children is so very black and white-- and not at all close to how things really are. as i grow older and think more about things, i realize that american notions of justice are truly fucked. hence the above situation.

and don't get me started on cops ;p

[lagizma]

I've both good and dreadful experiences with the cops. The older and wiser I get, though, the more I see that decriminalizing certain drugs is the answer to many of our ills, and we need to figure out how to treat the mentally ill and drug addicted. Mentally ill people are taken away by the cops, and that's just about the worst people for them to interact with. I've seen it firsthand and it is horrifying.

[crystalstarr]

i think it's sad he died, he shot a cop. he obviously was a drug addict strung out he didn't need to rot in jail the last 20 years then get executed. The south..

[helpimarock]

I'm really disappointed that I didn't catch this post when you first made it. Not only is this one of those golden incidents where something truly good happens, but I also have strong feelings about his sentencing in light of the victim being a cop and I what superjen and zenithblue had to say really resonated with me.