Murphy James (1)

National:
Summary:
In the state of Texas, it appears that the death penalty is a common thing, and commutation is not. However, this one lucky soul got to a break. Today, Kenneth Foster was given the sentence of life imprisonment when he was to be killed today. Governor Rick Perry decided to give Foster commutation. Perry has granted this only two other times, not including the 28 seventeen - year olds who became illegal to give capitol punishment. 163 other executions have been carried out under Perry's rule. It looks like today God looked upon Mr. Foster with favor.
Mr. Foster was an accomplice in a robbery in San Antonio, driving the getaway car. The robbery turned into a murder, and for this the state of Texas can try accomplices along with the commiter.
Opinion:
I will be quite frank. Killing to show killing is wrong is a lot like bombing for peace, or (excuse my language Mr. Hjort) screwing for virginity. You can't tell someone not to do something by doing it yourself. It's crazy! Ofcourse, there are the few rare occasions in which a person needs to be put to death for the safety of the people, just like sometimes it's neccessary to bomb countries for the safety of the people. But on a whole, human lives are a valuable thing. God gave them to us. If that person was only an accomplice (not the person who came up with the plan on how to kill a person, just an accomplice) to a murder, or to a robery that turned into a homicide, their life is not ours to take.

International:
Summary:
The classic stories of the Mafia. What seems like a fairy tale to most is still very real in Italy. Today, 44 warrants for arrest were given out for two families in the Italian mafia. Christmas time in Germany, a shooting occured outside a pizzeria. The families then became even more tense than they already were, and fighting broke out. The warrants weren't given just for the shooters of the pizzeria outbreak, but for several of the family members ( the warrants are said to be basically evenly distributed amongst the families). The two main household leaders are still running loose. Many people, civilians and mobsters alike, are in fear for their lives.
Oppinion:
While I find it interesting to have been an American 1920's mobster, or a daughter of a mafia lord, it saddens me that such acts are occuring on such a large scale today. The fact that families hate other families because that family rules the drug deals, or the other family has a lead in extortion is truely depressing.