This is what we might call a "liberal's paradox".
Anybody recognize the name Lawrence Russell Brewer? That's one of the three racist human debris who in 1998 chained James Byrd, Jr., a black man, to a pickup truck in Texas and dragged him to his death.
It's been reported today that Brewer, who had been given the death penalty, will be executed for this crime later this year:
A judge in Jasper County signed an order on Tuesday that sets Sept. 21 as the date 44-year-old Lawrence Russell Brewer will be put to death by lethal injection for killing James Byrd. Three white men chained the 49-year-old black man to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him to death on a country road near Jasper.
Brewer was one of the three convicted in the June 1998 case that shocked the nation for its brutality. Partner John William King also was sentenced to death and is awaiting an appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, received life in prison.
Incidentally, and unsurprisingly, Democrats milked this horrible race-related murder for all the political points they could score. First and foremost, in 2000, then-Texas governor and presidential candidate George W. Bush was accused of racism by the Democrat-media complex for opposing a state hate crime law which was proposed following this crime.
(Bush was, in my view, absolutely correct in opposing such legislation, since hate crime legislation has nothing to do with stopping crime and everything to do with stifling speech that liberals/Democrats disagree with simply by labeling it "hate speech". Another flaw with hate crime legislation is that it deems the murder of one human being as more serious than that of another simply by virtue of the color of their skin. That is no way to ensure a color-blind society where everyone is equal before the law, but it is a surefire way for liberals/Democrats to win the votes of Americans whose stance on such issues is based in raw emotion rather than rational critical thinking. Indeed, in 2009, a Democrat president and a Democrat-controlled House and Senate managed to pass nationwide hate crime legislation, in honor of Byrd (as well as of homosexual University of Wyoming student Mathew Shepard.)
To add insult to injury, although Bush opposed hate crime legislation for Texas, he was criticized for governing a state that allowed the death penalty -- which is exactly what Brewer and a second perpetrator was sentenced with in 1998! (So remember kids: when you're a Republican, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't!)
And so now, 13 years after this heinous crime, Brewer is finally going to get his final punishment. But what is a liberal to do?
What a moral dilemma for the anti-capital punishment crowd. On the one hand, if they applaud the death of Brewer, then that will expose their hypocrisy by suggesting they're really only against capital punishment when it's one of "their own" they're trying to save. It will also conflict with the position of the sanctimonious moral superior types who a month ago chastised those cheering OBL's death.
On the other hand, if they stay consistent with their stance on the death penalty and plead for this man's life, they might be criticized for defending the life of a racist who violently murdered a black man.
Don't get me wrong. This racist piece of trash deserves what's coming to him. If his execution were televised, I'd watch it and cheer.
But let's see what the liberati do ...
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