The term "The Jury is Out" has been changed here this week to "The Jury is Out of Touch!"
A Houston Jury sentenced Juan Quintero to life without parole rather than to the death penalty. After the sentencing slain police officer Jerome Johnson’s mother screeched "He deserves the Death Penalty!", his sister fainted hearing the verdict and his wife summed up the feeling in Houston by saying, "My Husband’s life meant nothing."
The case had lots of issues within issues. Officer Johnson missed a 9mm handgun in his search of traffic suspect Quintero before he put him in the back seat of his squad car handcuffed behind his back. Quintero managed to get his handgun, get his hands in front him and empty it into the seat in front of him.
The police officer was black, Quintero, not only Hispanic but an illegal immigrant who had been deported to Mexico in 1999 for sexual abuse with a child. The murder was rather simple in itself as Quintero paniced in fear knowing the traffic stop would cause him to be deported, lose his family and change his world. Not premeditated, after all, how could someone premeditate a traffic stop.
So the Dumbutt, Texas angst is flying off the meter. Talk shows and letters to the editors are quite unanimous, justice has not been served! Justice failed! No justice! Justice no longer exists in Texas! Justice is dead! The end of justice as we know it. As Jesus said on the cross "This is Justice!"
There is some discussion whether the jury’s decision was based upon the superior lawyering skills of defense attorney Daba-lynn Recer who managed through Quintero’s family and friends, to give him enough humanity to spare him, or is it the growing unpopularity – even within Texas – of capital punishment. [Trust me, it ait dat!]
So there is some good in everything I suppose. It saved me from more blood on my hands and bringing Texas Whites and Blacks together in solidarity with that Christian thirst for executions while together pounding the drums of anti-immigration. Who knows, MLK’s dream may come true as Whites and Blacks skip down the street together hand in hand with a rope.