[DutchgirlRN]

Texas Death Row Inmate Commits Suicide

6 hours ago


LIVINGSTON, Texas - A convicted killer facing lethal injection beat the executioner to it Thursday, committing suicide by slitting his throat and arm with a blade in his Texas death row cell 15 hours before he was supposed to die.
Michael Dewayne Johnson, 29, was found in a pool of blood by officers making routine checks on him every 15 minutes, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Johnson apparently scrawled words in blood on the wall of his cell, but prison officials would not say what he wrote.
He is at least the seventh condemned man in Texas to take his own life since death row reopened in 1974.
http://www.comcast.net/news/national...tn_texasinmate

[canoehead]

This I will file under the "I don't care" section.

OK, maybe I'm just a little disappointed.

[texas_lvn]

Well if he would have only done this when he committed whatever crime he did, it would have saved us a load of money.

Did you know that the cause of death when on death row is homicide on the death certificate? I thought that was interesting.

[ZASHAGALKA]

I only feel bad because of how it will affect the careers of the guards - which of course, was the intent, or at least, the only tangible result. Just goes to show that even in death, this guy only intended to harm others, or just as bad - didn't care.

Kind of justifies his place on death row in the first place.

You might not be able to take the material things of this world with you, but OH!, I so believe that you take your 'karma'. That karma didn't serve him well here and I suspect it won't serve him much better there.

Good riddance.

~faith,
Timothy.

[ZASHAGALKA]

http://www.ccadp.org/michaeljohnson-news2002.htm

"Johnson of Balch Springs was 18 when he shot Wetterman on Sept. 10, 1995, after Johnson and a friend stopped at the Wetterman family's convenience store on Interstate 35 in Lorena to gas up the stolen Cadillac they were driving.

Johnson reportedly shot Wetterman because he didn't want to pay $24 for a tank of gas. Wetterman, 27, who had been married three weeks, died the following night after being taken off life-support systems."

~faith,
Timothy.

[JaxiaKiley]

I didn't know it was listed as homicide. Interesting.

And yeah, it woulda saved taxpayers a LOT of money. One of my biggest problems with the death penalty is the money it costs to keep people on death row and then kill them. Ropes, or even bullets are so much cheaper.