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    ratchedHamilton Nolan
    7/09/14 3:22pm

    All DR inmates in Texas start with the numbers 999. That's exclusive to DR only. We were not allowed to call an inmate Mr. or sir as that confers a certain respect and inmates/convicts were not considered respectable. We were also not to touch them in any way that was not necessary, i.e., patting them down, cuffing them, and other security "touches" and medical was not to touch other than what was necessary to get a medical job done.

    I have patted an inmate's hand while they die. (We had a very ill population and a good sized hospice. Due to the nature of prisons, a Justice of the Peace could not come in and declare death. The charge nurses did. So while I had to sit and watch them die, (with EKG strips until they flatlined) you just stood there in their hospital cell, and waiting for them to die. Sometimes you did a bit of smalltalk. Sometimes they couldn't speak, but their eyes would look at you beseechingly and terrified. Most were conscious. Is it really so bad to give a dying person the barest of human touch at their death? I think not.

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      Sequaciousliciousratched
      7/09/14 5:02pm

      Are you OK? I wouldn't know how to rationalize those kinds of emotions.

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      Theglass is broken and leaking Sangria.ratched
      7/09/14 5:40pm

      Your post was very informative. Kudos to you for sharing and being in a profession that caters to those in need!

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    KittensAndUnicorns_v2_The UprisingHamilton Nolan
    7/09/14 3:11pm

    "I would like to say my name is Pete Russell and I am a human being"

    this. this is what humanizes him for me. intellectually i know that the death penalty is unethical ( and costly) but i also feel for the families who may have suffered a death because of some sociopath. but he's still a human being.

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      hccrriiiKittensAndUnicorns_v2_The Uprising
      7/09/14 3:16pm

      "Russell was convicted of fatally stabbing, slashing and stomping 40-year-old Tanjala Brewer in 2001 in retaliation for her tip to police that led to his arrest on a drug charge. Testimony showed he used her blood to scrawl, "She is the devil. I am God," on a door at her Houston home."

      Is he a human being, a god, or an insane danger to society? I'm going with #3.

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      hatchhccrriii
      7/09/14 3:22pm

      huh weird that you pose that question like "human being" and "dangerous" are mutually exclusive choices

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    titania126Hamilton Nolan
    7/09/14 3:20pm

    I would love just once to hear an ACTUAL justification for publishing this series, other than "to hear from people who aren't usually heard." Does that automatically, to you, mean they're worth hearing from? What do you hope that readers will learn from this? That there are liars, criminals, violence, and poverty in prisons as well as outside of prisons? To me this argument feels increasingly like the idiotic justification for teaching creationism—sometimes, you DON'T have to hear the other side of the story. Sometimes, telling the other side of the story is actually damaging, and treating it as equally valid as the story that in this case resulted in someone's brutal murder is cruel and does a disservice to these men's victims and their family.

    It would be one thing if you wanted to go through the Innocence Project and have their clients publish a series of letters. THOSE are people I want to hear from—the people whose guilt is legitimately in question. Hearing it with context from the people who are trying to have them exonerated would be fascinating and educational. Hearing from murderers who would rather not receive the legal punishment for their crimes is not educational even in the limited capacity of adding to the conversation about whether or not the death penalty should be legal. The "presented without comment" approach is a deep, fundamental flaw in this series.

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      tr0gd0rtitania126
      7/09/14 3:33pm

      I think the purpose is to establish that the individuals on death row are actual people. Individuals with thoughts and feelings, and sometimes weird, girly handwriting. That they remain human beings even though they've done something terrible and horrifying and unrationalizable. And that maybe if you think of them as people, and not numbers, it makes it harder to justify murdering them.

      Or maybe it's just because they know that every time they publish a letter like this, hundreds of Internet Detectives and Moral Compasses will come shrieking out of the woodwork to remind us that "Hey, that guy on death row for murder? He committed a murder! Holy shit! Let's murder him twice!" That's probably it, honestly. Lots and lots of clicks.

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      Fartsmello Anthonytitania126
      7/09/14 3:33pm

      I would love to hear one reason to justify not publishing this series besides people like you who are unable to read these letters without having to post some bullshit comment to prove they don't condone murder. There is nothing in this post that is an endorsement of this man or his crimes or his release. But thanks for chiming in to show you aren't capable of absorbing information without either condemning or condoning it. Next time you read a story about the holocaust, make sure you let everyone know you don't support genocide. Would hate for people to start calling you "Hitler II" because you forgot to post that Hitler was bad in the comments.

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    Jockimo LeChatHamilton Nolan
    7/09/14 3:19pm

    I don't understand why they can't kill people using Inert Gas Asphyxiation such as the Helium Bag or Suicide Bag. If I had to end it that is how I would go. The other methods seem so horrible and messy.

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      ScelestusJockimo LeChat
      7/09/14 3:22pm

      Right? Why mess with a complicated cocktail of drugs, when there are so many easier ways to do it? I never understood that, either.

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      Exponential GrapeScelestus
      7/09/14 3:36pm

      That's my big problem with it. If you're for the death penalty, why do you care if you're humane?

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    trooperMooHamilton Nolan
    7/09/14 3:36pm

    "I would like to say my name is Pete Russell and I am a human being. To the public and to our country, I would like to say I'm a human being, not a monster! " No, you are wrong Mr. Russell, you are indeed a MONSTER. YOU stomped a woman to death. YOU wrote in her blood. YOU were on bond for a cocaine conviction when YOU did this murder. YOU admitted to murdering her. All of these things make you a MONSTER. Personally, I would have no problem being the one to pull the lever and putting the poison in your arms.

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      areyouserioustrooperMoo
      7/09/14 4:22pm

      Did you miss the part where he grew up poor though? We're supposed to have compassion!!!!!!111!

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      trooperMooareyouserious
      7/09/14 4:58pm

      "I would say that my past and upbringing was ok. I'm sure that it could have been better, but over all, as I reflect on the past, I can honestly say I miss it! I miss being little, the baby, the center of attention. My mom picking me up and feeding me. I know that I was loved. " No, he said right there, his upbringing was ok.

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    BeeblesTVHamilton Nolan
    7/09/14 3:08pm

    Hi Pete. You killed another human being. Now you will die for it. I hope your suffering is equal to that of your victim. My only regret is that you have had to wait this long for your punishment, it should have come as swiftly as the death blows you rained down on Tanjala Brewer's body with your sharp object. You will be remembered as a murderer, as it should be. I do not care what you have become, because the person you murdered never had a chance to become anything more then they where when you ended their life so suddenly.

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      Fred MercadoBeeblesTV
      7/09/14 3:29pm

      They say hatred leads to acute forms of cardiovascular disease. Let it go. Sometimes in life shit happens. Its not all about revenge.

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      BeeblesTVFred Mercado
      7/09/14 3:35pm

      No thanks. I think I will continue to hate pieces of shit who kill someone then try and sell me a book like they never did anything wrong.

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    jfpmfersHamilton Nolan
    7/09/14 3:07pm

    you know who else was a human? the person you murdered. CHECKMATE

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      VivaTerlinguaHamilton Nolan
      7/09/14 3:10pm

      my name is Pete Russell and I am a human being. To the public and to our country, I would like to say I'm a human being, not a monster!

      Testimony showed he used her blood to scrawl, "She is the devil. I am God," on a door at her Houston home.

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        JSWilson64_gHamilton Nolan
        7/09/14 3:07pm

        Yeah, I followed the links and read about his case. Don't really care what he thinks about the prison experience, thanks very much.

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          JamedFaisalHamilton Nolan
          7/09/14 3:09pm

          Apparently the 8 year bid he did earlier in his life didn't prove sufficient punishment for him to stop attacking people with deadly weapons.

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