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'Nighty night, everybody. I’m done'

Robert Pruett, 12.10 2017

Robert Pruett became the sixth person to be executed in Texas so far this year. His death marked the 1,462nd execution in the United States since 1976, per the Marshall Project, and 544th one in Texas.

Mr. Pruett was 15 years old when he last saw the outside world, after his father stabbed a neighbor to death outside the family home, with Mr. Pruett present.

The court found that Mr. Pruett was culpable under Texas’ infamous “law of parties,” whereby anyone who “solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid” a person who commits a crime is equally liable, no matter small his or her role.

The extent to which Mr. Pruett assisted or encouraged his father is disputed, but even under the prosecution’s version of events, he did not kill the man.

He got 99 years !

At age 20, while still behind bars, Mr. Pruett was accused of killing the correctional officer Daniel Nagle. At 22, he was sentenced to death for the crime. He has maintained that he is innocent, and there is reson to believe he is telling the truth.

The conviction relied largely on the testimony of inmate eyewitnesses, who are alleged to have received favorable deals in exchange for testimony.

No physical evidence ever connected Mr. Pruett to the killing, and when he finally succeeded in having the murder weapon tested for DNA, nothing conclusive was found.

Legally, that wasn’t enough to overturn Mr. Pruett’s conviction, but it should be deeply discomforting and raise serious doubts about whether he’s responsible for the crime.

Mr. Pruett has never had a chance to live outside a prison as an adult. Taking his life is a senseless wrong that shows how badly the Texas court system, America, which senselessly threw a teenager’s life away

His execution should deeply trouble the country’s conscience...

Sad day for Democracy

Nathan J. Robinson, attorney and a Ph.D. student studying criminal justice at Harvard University. / http://mass-sleepwalkers.blogspot.fr

Photography / Tamir Kalifa for The Texas Tribune