Guilty, Innocent, Guilty

Despite having argued that the prisoner didn't commit the crime, Texas carries out his execution

The State of Texas has argued, repeatedly and eloquently, that Jesse DeWayne Jacobs did not pull the trigger of a .38-cal. pistol that killed a woman named Etta Ann Urdiales in 1986. The state convinced a jury that Jacobs did not even know that his sister, who the prosecutor insisted was the trigger person, had a gun at the time the crime was committed. Yet for that crime Jesse DeWayne Jacobs became the first person executed by Texas in 1995.

At 12:02 a.m. last Wednesday, he was strapped to a gurney in Huntsville state prison, his arms pierced by needles attached...

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