From: davidc@wa-wd.com   
      
   [Fixed incompatible character in header]   
      
   I'm only going to comment on the case I know something about.   
      
   >Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Texas plans to execute Travis Mullis, making him   
   >the fourth person the state has executed in 2024.   
   >   
   >Mullis was found guilty of capital murder in 2011. According to Newsweek,   
   >“He was accused of sexually assaulting his 3-month-old son, Alijah Mullis,   
   >then stomping on his head and choking him, resulting in death.”   
   >   
   >No one contends that Mullis is innocent of that horrible crime. But his   
   >case shows the way that America’s death penalty is used against troubled   
   >and vulnerable people.   
   >   
   >Mullis has a mental illness resulting from a troubled and abusive   
   >childhood. His attorneys say that he “was in and out of mental health   
   >treatment centers, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar   
   >disorder, and attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder.”   
   >   
   >Mullis also was ill-served by the lawyers in his original trial who did “a   
   >poor job of describing the depths of his mental illness.” As a result,   
   >“The jury heard just a fraction of the horrors in Mullis’s life.”   
   >   
   >Like with Mullis, if Oklahoma goes ahead with its plan to kill Emmanuel   
   >Littlejohn on Thursday, it will execute someone who was abused throughout   
   >his childhood and whose formative years were marked by “frequent exposure   
   >to violence and drugs.”   
      
   First of all, you aren't going to get the truth from a news piece that   
   just repeats what a defendant's attorneys say, which is all this is.   
      
   Second, Mullis has spent his entire thirteen years on Death Row   
   telling the courts not to listen to his attorneys. They keep filing   
   claims on his behalf, and he keeps filing pro se asking the courts to   
   ignore them. You will read about this here tomorrow.   
      
   Third, the jury heard plenty about Mullis's abusive childhood. Plenty.   
   These lawyers are claiming the trial lawyers did a poor job of   
   portraying it. I don't think anyone familiar with the trial would say   
   that they didn't feel like they were aware what a horrible childhood   
   Mullis had.   
      
   Fourth, the childhood abuse defense doesn't work. Juries don't care.   
   Especially not when you sexually abuse your own three-month-old son   
   and stomp him to death. They could have presented whatever childhood   
   abuse story they wanted to, and it wouldn't have mattered. He still   
   would have gotten the death sentence.   
      
   David Carson   
   --   
   Texas Execution Information   
   www.txexecutions.org   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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