POT AND COKE MADE THE CONDEMNED A NUTCASE

Sentenced to death by a Texas jury, a last minute appeal by Garcia White argues that when he killed three women, he was suffering from severe mental illness brought on by his use of marijuana and cocaine

Death penalty appeals range from the routine to those last minute e appeals. The initial appeals usually argue that the defendant’s life should be spared because he had an inadequate defense by an incompetent lawyer, or that the judge erred in the jury instructions, or that he had a difficult childhood or was sexually abused, or that he had never been taught right from wrong, or that had been rehabilitated while roosting on death row, etc., etc.

Then there are those Eighth Amendment appeals. It is cruel and unusual punishment to execute the defendant because he is mentally ill or who has a low IQ, or as in a California case and one in Texas, it is cruel and unusual punishment to execute the defendant after he has been lingering on death row for decades. Then there are the most recent last minute appeals arguing that the lethal drugs now in use will cause the defendant to experience an agonizing and painful death.

Now we have a new and different last minute appeal claiming that pot and coke made the condemned a nutcase.

Garcia Glen White, 51, is not a very nice man. He has murdered five people. In 1989, White went to Bonita Edwards’ Houston home to smoke some crack with her. During an argument with Bonita, he stabbed her to death. Then he stabbed her 16-year-old twin daughters, Annette and Bernette, to death as well. The not so nice man also raped Bernette while he was at it.

From The Austin Chronicle:

It took six years for Houston police to tie the murders back to White. In 1995, during questioning for a convenience store robbery that resulted in the death of shop owner Hai Pham, White's friend and accomplice Tecumseh Manuel told authorities that White was responsible for the Edwards' deaths (and had killed another woman, Greta Williams, in the weeks before that). White was brought in, and eventually confessed to all five killings.

In 1996, White was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Annette and Bernette Edwards. His initial and subsequent appeals argued unsuccessfully that his jury selection, jury instructions, his statements to police and the punishment charge were all improper. His latest date with death was scheduled for this evening.

In an effort to spare White’s life, his lawyers have come up with a new and different last minute appeal. The lawyers argue that when White killed the twins, he was suffering from severe mental illness brought on by his use of marijuana and cocaine.

And this should come as a real shock to the proponents of pot. White’s lawyers argue that scientific studies since 2002 reveal that “When someone builds a tolerance to marijuana, withdrawal may result in aggression. The unpleasant effects were generally unknown in the medical community until … 2013.” Me thinks this shoots down that harmless pot mantra.

The ‘pot and coke made me nuts’ appeal seems to have caught some traction. On Tuesday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal appellate court, called off White’s execution without an explanation. All I can say about the judges who voted to stop the execution of this killer of five is that something in the rarefied air of that high court must have made them nuts. I seriously doubt the U.S. Supreme Court would have spared the worthless life of this pot-head shitass.

It used to be that the devil made me do it. Now it’s the marijuana and cocaine that made me do it. What’s next – could it be the tooth fairy that made me do it?