Moises Sandoval Mendoza is scheduled to be executed by deadly injection in Texas subsequent month — lastly, after 21 years.
In 2004, he was convicted and sentenced to demise for murdering a 20-year-old mom by the identify of Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson. Usually, I don’t assist the demise penalty. However Mendoza has achieved some evil issues. In keeping with authorities, he met Tolleson at a celebration. After she confirmed no romantic curiosity in him, Mendoza advised police that he kidnapped, sexually assaulted, stabbed and burned Tolleson earlier than burying her disfigured physique beneath a pile of brush. Police discovered Tolleson’s 5-month-old daughter alone after household reported the girl lacking. Along with his confession, Mendoza’s DNA and witness testimony linked him to the crime.
I nonetheless don’t assist the demise penalty. However particulars like those involving Mendoza problem my place. The identical is true for the case of Matthew Johnson, who is about to be executed in Texas on Could 20.
On that very same date in 2012, Johnson robbed a comfort retailer by pouring lighter fluid over the pinnacle of the clerk, 76-year-old Nancy Harris, and setting her on hearth. In keeping with court docket paperwork, the girl may be seen within the retailer’s digicam surveillance footage desperately making an attempt to douse the flames after Johnson leaves. When police discovered him, he was nonetheless in possession of the cigarettes, lighters and $76 he had stolen from the shop and the ring he pressured off of the sufferer’s hand. Greater than 40% of her physique was burned. Harris, a grandmother of 12 and great-grandmother of 5, died 5 days after the assault. Johnson’s execution gained’t convey Harris again to her grieving household, however it might change the that means of Could 20 for them. Maybe on this, there’s a measure of closure.
That gained’t be the case for relations of the victims killed in a Walmart close to the southern border in 2019.
Patrick Crusius, 21, and a resident of an prosperous Dallas suburb, drove greater than 600 miles throughout Texas to El Paso on Aug. 3 — to focus on Latinos, in accordance with police. When he arrived, Crusius posted a manifesto expressing white supremacist ideology and admiration of racially motivated mass shooters. Then he began taking pictures. With an AK-47-type rifle, he dedicated one of many deadliest mass shootings on this nation’s historical past, killing 23 individuals — amongst them younger mother and father like Tolleson and grandparents like Harris. Along with the deaths, Crusius was liable for injuring 22 others.
Nevertheless, this week, greater than 5 years after Crusius confessed to authorities that he was liable for the bloodshed, El Paso County Dist. Atty. James Montoya introduced his workplace would not seek the death penalty, simply as federal prosecutors selected to not pursue execution. Within the federal case, Crusius pleaded guilty to hate crimes in 2023 and was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences.
While you juxtapose the demise totals among the many three instances, the El Paso prosecutor’s resolution makes little sense. Why execute killers of two people however not the killer of 23? While you juxtapose the demographics of the three Texas instances, the choice displays a disturbing sample. Mendoza, killer of the 20-year-old mom, is Latino. Johnson, killer of the 76-year-old cashier, is Black. These males are the final two individuals set to be executed this yr within the Lone Star State, and so they each killed white girls.
Two professors within the College of Denver’s Division of Sociology and Criminology studied 40 years of Texas demise sentences (1976-2016) and located defendants accused of killing white girls are three times more likely to be put to death. Many of the victims on the Walmart had been Latino. Crusius is white. So regardless of being convicted within the state that has executed the most people within the nation for the reason that reinstatement of the demise penalty — he will get to reside.
I’ll say it once more: Usually I’m not a supporter of the demise penalty. The main points of Crusius’ crimes problem my place. What’s it about his case that warranted additional leniency? The 2 males Texas plans to kill don’t have practically as a lot blood on their palms.
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Concepts expressed within the piece
- The El Paso mass shooter, Patrick Crusius, was not sentenced to demise regardless of killing 23 individuals and injuring 22 others in a racially motivated assault concentrating on Latinos at a Walmart in 2019. Federal prosecutors opted for 90 consecutive life sentences after Crusius pleaded responsible to hate crimes in 2023[2].
- The choice contrasts with Texas’ scheduled executions of Moises Sandoval Mendoza and Matthew Johnson, each males of shade convicted of killing white girls. A College of Denver examine discovered that Texas defendants accused of killing white girls are 3 times extra more likely to obtain the demise penalty, suggesting systemic racial bias in capital sentencing[1][2].
- Critics argue Crusius’ white identification and the racial demographics of his victims—predominantly Latino—could have influenced the leniency, reflecting broader disparities the place perpetrators of shade face harsher penalties than white defendants committing hate crimes[2][4].
Completely different views on the subject
- Prosecutors in each state and federal instances cited victims’ households’ needs as a think about sentencing choices. For instance, South Carolina prosecutors emphasised respecting household enter when pursuing or avoiding the demise penalty[1][3].
- Authorized methods, akin to avoiding extended trials by plea offers for assured life sentences, could prioritize closure for victims’ households over public calls for for execution. Crusius’ federal responsible plea eradicated the necessity for a trial, sparing survivors from reliving trauma[1][2].
- Some officers emphasize the severity of crimes over demographics. State Lawyer Suzy Lopez sought the demise penalty for a defendant who killed two individuals, stating, “a jury deserves to resolve if the demise penalty is an acceptable punishment for his actions”[1]. Equally, a Texas prosecutor famous that Crusius’ life sentences guarantee he “gained’t cease with the subsequent assault,” framing it as preventative[2].
