Life

I just read on my Austin homepage that Texas had executed a 52 yr old man who was involved in the murder of a 29 yr old policeman who responded to an armed robbery (and then ran over his body with their stolen SUV.) Seven of them had broken out of a Texas prison 11 days before, all were caught within a month.

The whole story made me so sad. The man who was executed, Donald Newberry, made the prison break with the leader, somebody Rivas, who was serving 19 life sentences for his crime. Rivas must have been a sadistic, hardened criminal, don't know what he did but 19 life sentences is severe. The sad thing about Newberry was all the chances he had been given. He was born in 1962, claimed that he had a very hard, abusive childhood, which he says should have been taken into account when giving him prison terms and then the execution. But it sounds like it was.

I don't know when he was first sent to prison, but he had committed aggravated robbery, given a 10 year sentence and paroled in 1985 when he was 23. Sent back to prison in 1987 for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon for 15 years, then paroled in 1992. In 1998 he committed another aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and was sent to prison with a sentence of 99 years. Broke out of prison in 2000, was part of the gang that ambushed and murdered the responding police officer, and was sentenced in 2002 to execution, which finally happened yesterday 2015.

He always served very little of his time before parole, committed the same crime, returned to prison with increasing sentences, before ending in murder of the policeman. Not sure who actually did the murder, but if you're part of it, you get the same consequences. And society has a right to be protected from someone like him and his cohorts.

Just so, so sad. From the little I read about any comments he made, he never accepted responsibility for any of his actions, always a blame about his rough, abusive childhood (which I don't doubt, but many others have had rough childhoods and don't rob and murder), the horrible prison conditions (then don't return), and his last words: "I would. That each new indignity defeats only the body. Pampering the spirit with obscure merit. I love you all. That's it." I'm not sure what he meant, but maybe there is some repentance, some acknowledgment in the words I love you all.

I do know that God created him, and loves him. I wonder if any other person cared about his life, doesn't seem his parents did. And it all makes me sad.