The broad public outrage in Mexico over the execution has found expression in protests, such a march through Cuernavaca, the capital of Tamayo's home state of Morelos on Tuesday. The popular norteno band "Los Tigres del Norte" produced a ballad (termed corrido in Mexico) in protest against the execution called "Inyeccion Letal," or "Lethal Injection." Mexico formally abolished the death penalty in 2005.
In a farewell letter, Tamayo denounced both the treatment of Mexicans on death row and the indifference -- official protests notwithstanding -- of the Mexican government to their fate. He insisted that the Mexican government not be allowed to "have a hand in anything" to do with his funeral, as it would merely exploit it for its own purposes.
"Please tell all of my countrymen, all of my Mexico, to forgive me for having failed them and getting locked up," he wrote. "And I hope that what happened to me serves as an example for other people, and remember that prison ...kills our loved ones, and we will always be the victims of our poverty and of our own color."
"If I lose, don't worry," he concluded, "I will go very happy to get back to my village."
The execution of Tamayo comes barely one week after the state of Ohio carried out the excruciating state murder of Dennis McGuire, using a new untested two-drug lethal injection that took an agonizing 25 minutes to end his life.
Texas, like Ohio, has run out of drugs previously used in lethal injections due to a boycott by European manufacturers. It has turned to pentobarbital, an anesthetic normally employed in the euthanizing of animals. When a Houston-based compounding pharmacy was revealed as the source of the drug, it demanded that the state return the drug as it had been promised its role would be kept secret. The state authorities refused.
Of the 1,363 executions carried out in the US since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Texas has been responsible for 509. Perry is personally responsible for ordering a staggering 270 executions since he took office from predecessor George W. Bush -- who presided over 152 state killings before becoming president.
After killing Tamayo, Texas is already preparing for its next execution. Susan Basso, who is paralyzed from the chest down and delusional, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on February 5 for a 1998 murder.
The United States is one of the only advanced capitalist countries to impose capital punishment, a barbaric method of state murder that has been abolished by two-thirds of the nations on the planet. The US ranks among the top five in the number of individuals it puts to death, along with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
