TX - Elizabeth Pena, 16, & Jennifer Ertman, 14, slain, Houston, 24 June 1993

[lizzybeth]

And as a sorry final note, Medellin in his last words did not make a full apology, choosing instead to go with the "I'm sorry if my actions brought you pain. I hope this brings you the closure..."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5924476.html

I'm sorry IF? What a colossal beast to the end.

Not that it matters Texana but in the link that you provided it didn't include the word "if" in the quote for his apology. I honestly don't think an apology from him would mean anything to anyone. Maybe if he had done it right after the murders.

I guess his comment about not hating was directed to his friend. He didn't want her to hate the people that executed him? Did I understand that right?

 

[GlitchWizard]

...The only people protesting are anti-death penalty advocates and the Mexican government--but again, as an expression of being anti-death penalty. ....

I didn't expect them to withhold this execution based on the possibility of having innocent people overseas tortured. They don't have enough concern over the prevention of executing innocent people themselves, so it makes sense.

I have to say that this "only protesting because" is pretty common. I'm anti death penalty, and since pro death penalty people typically dismiss the really important-to-me-reasons to abandon it, I'll get behind any reason they'll think is important.

....For example, the "chemical cocktail." Death hurts. Accidents, heart attacks, drowning - it all hurts. I'm not worried about if a person feels pain upon their death... but that seems to be the only thing people will discuss and take seriously... so I'll go with it.

The really important reasons would benefit from it in the long run.

 

[southcitymom]

And as a sorry final note, Medellin in his last words did not make a full apology, choosing instead to go with the "I'm sorry if my actions brought you pain. I hope this brings you the closure..."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5924476.html

I'm sorry IF? What a colossal beast to the end.

This article - and all others I have read - say he said "I am sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings the closure that you seek." http://www.ajc.com/news/content/sha...s_Execution.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

I think it is cool that he said that. It may not mean anything to many, but I suspect some folks would berate this guy no matter what he did or didn't say. Such is the nature of the effect the terrible choice he made years ago has on many people.

May everyone harmed by this crime find peace.

 

[southcitymom]

Not that it matters Texana but in the link that you provided it didn't include the word "if" in the quote for his apology. I honestly don't think an apology from him would mean anything to anyone. Maybe if he had done it right after the murders.

I guess his comment about not hating was directed to his friend. He didn't want her to hate the people that executed him? Did I understand that right?

Yes, Lizzy - it was directed at his friend.

 

[Texana]

This article - and all others I have read - say he said "I am sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings the closure that you seek." http://www.ajc.com/news/content/sha...s_Execution.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

I think it is cool that he said that. It may not mean anything to many, but I suspect some folks would berate this guy no matter what he did or didn't say. Such is the nature of the effect the terrible choice he made years ago has on many people.

May everyone harmed by this crime find peace.

The actual quote as reported by all the local news was "I'm sorry IF my actions caused you any pain."

I'll go back and check again but to me, that wasn't a true apology. It was a last little dig that fit his personality.

The other death row inmate already executed, Derick O'Brien, did repeatedly say he was sorry.

 

[southcitymom]

The actual quote as reported by all the local news was "I'm sorry IF my actions caused you any pain."

I'll go back and check again but to me, that wasn't a true apology. It was a last little dig that fit his personality.

The other death row inmate already executed, Derick O'Brien, did repeatedly say he was sorry.

I personally wouldn't interpret the meaning any differently with or without the IF. We cannot know what is in his heart, of course, and I didn't hear him say it so I do not know the tone of his voice. But I am glad an apology was extended.

 

[lightwaveryder]

you can say your sorry for accidentally shooting someone with a gun while cleaning it, you can say sorry for running into someone with a car when they dodge into traffic, you can't say you're sorry for the crime these mongrels committed. I don't care about anyones apologist turn the other cheek mumbo jumbo, (im a christian too btw) these animals should be destroyed and they deserve no compassion. they opted out of the compassion game on their own. seeing in the headline that this guy was executed made my morning better. (but it wont help the victims...those poor girls, the more i think of it the angrier i get.....)


Signed,
angry citizen who wishes to execute the criminals himself !!:furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious:

 

[MagicRose99]

Ok... this statement from the link below, just p*ssed me off!
<snip>
In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where Medellin was born, a small group of his relatives condemned his execution.

"Only God has the right to take a life," said Medellin's cousin Reyna Armendariz.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,399204,00.html

EXCUSE ME?!?!?! This piece of s**t took TWO lives and what... it was OK with his family? Do they think he was God?!?! I say, what goes around... comes around... too bad this piece of s**t didn't suffer as I'm sure those two girls did...

 

[GlitchWizard]

....
May everyone harmed by this crime find peace.

Excellent sentiment. No one left out.

 

[SFAladyjack]

Peter Cantu was executed yesterday. If there was ever anyone deserving of the death penalty, Cantu was the guy. He was the ringleader of the gang and he never once acted like he was the slightest bit remorseful over the deaths of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena.

I just want to emphasize how much this case impacted Houston in 1993. Gangs were a relatively new thing to law enforcement at the the time. I was a highschool senior and the deaths of Jennifer and Elizabeth have stayed with me all these years. They were my age. They should be married with kids today just like me. So, so sad.

I spent ten years in the juvenile justice field after college and the Ertman and Pena case transformed law enforcement entirely in Texas. Intensive Supervision, Gang Task Force, lowering of determinant sentencing ages, etc. are all attributed to this case. Furthermore, the US Supreme Court has made two different rulings as a result of the case - the first being that 17 year olds (adult age for ciminal jurisdiction in TX) can't be executed. The second being that Texas could execute Medellin for his part in the girls' deaths despite the UN World Court's resolution saying otherwise because he didn't have a chance to speak with the Mexican consulate upon arrest. Texas trumped the UN.

Two links below - the first is background on the horrific case, the second is about Cantu's execution.

http://www.murdervictims.com/voices/jeneliz.html


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7157533.html

 

[angelmom]

Too bad it took so long.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.khou.com/story/news/loca...-of-murder-victim-jennifer-has-died/14292169/

Randy Ertman has died. His daughter Jennifer and her friend Elizabeth Pena were the victims of one if the most searing crimes of in Houston - a savage gang rape and murder in 1993 that shocked the conscience of the city.

Ertman later became a prominent figure in Houston's victim's rights movement.

He's been battling lung cancer for months and friends say he died Monday morning at his home in Somerville. Randy Ertman was 62 years old.

 

[Nova]

I am anti-DP all the way, but I think TX surely does have the authority to carry out such a sentence on this man. Thank Goodness for the Supreme Court.

Why shouldn't we recognize the authority of the World Court like other civilized countries? It might do wonders toward legitimizing our aims as we wander the world playing policeman.

And, in the end, what difference does it really matter whether this one man (however inhumane and I'm not arguing that point) is killed or spends his life in prison. The fact that his family conspired to free him doesn't mean success was ever likely.

(ETA I rarely go near Texas, but I, too, remember this horrendous case. I don't blame anyone for her righteous indignation toward Medellin.)

 

[Nova]

Texana, I agree "I'm sorry if" was an inelegant choice, under the circumstances, but I find myself using the same construction and then thinking, "Why 'if'? You know the thing occurred!" Maybe it's a regionalism (I'm not from Texas, but I was raised in the South); I don't know.

But I don't agree it is evidence of heartlessness. It's just something we say. "If A is true, then B is also true." Such an equation is also used in formal logic, even though everyone knows "A is true."

It doesn't bother me nearly as much as "I'm sorry about what happened" instead of "I'm sorry for what I did". THAT drives me crazy!

 

[CocoChanel]

http://www.khou.com/story/news/loca...-of-murder-victim-jennifer-has-died/14292169/

I mourn the death of this father, yet I know he has died a thousand times since the night his precious daughter was brutalized and killed. May he be reunited with her on the other side.

 

[HMSHood]

I cannot fathom the pain Randy Ertman and Sandy Ertman and Melissa Pena. What a horrible crime. :crying:

 

[Nova]

I can understand being opposed to the death penalty in the abstract or in principal.
But when opponents get emotionally invested and start lending support to some of these monsters individually in essence lobbying behalf of rapists and murderers who are clearly guilty...they lose me real quick.
This guy needs to be smoked the sooner the better.

I agree with you this far: either the d.p. is wrong for the worst-of-the-worst, or opposition to state-sanctioned killing doesn't mean much.

 

[Nova]

you can say your sorry for accidentally shooting someone with a gun while cleaning it, you can say sorry for running into someone with a car when they dodge into traffic, you can't say you're sorry for the crime these mongrels committed. I don't care about anyones apologist turn the other cheek mumbo jumbo, (im a christian too btw) these animals should be destroyed and they deserve no compassion. they opted out of the compassion game on their own. seeing in the headline that this guy was executed made my morning better. (but it wont help the victims...those poor girls, the more i think of it the angrier i get.....)


Signed,
angry citizen who wishes to execute the criminals himself !!:furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious::furious:

Sorry, but WWJD?