QuoteTexas man executed for post-9/11 murder
From Bill Mears, CNN
July 21, 2011 -- Updated 0303 GMT (1103 HKT)
(CNN) -- Texas inmate Mark Anthony Stroman was executed Wednesday night for killing a man from India during series of revenge shootings after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.
Stroman was put to death at 9:53 p.m. ET, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Stroman last month, and his supporters -- including a survivor of one of the shootings attributed to him -- urged Gov. Rick Perry and the state Board of Pardons and Parole to grant clemency. The state Criminal Appeals Court denied his last appeal on Wednesday.
Stroman, 41, made national headlines after he fatally shot Vasudev Patel during a shooting rampage after the 9/11 attacks. An admitted white supremacist, Stroman targeted those he believed were Middle Eastern, in revenge for the attacks.
A Pakistani man, Waqar Hasan, was also murdered, and a Bangladeshi man, Rais Bhuiyan, was seriously wounded.
"I cannot tell you that I am an innocent man. I am not asking you to feel sorry for me, and I won't hide the truth," Stroman told CNN in a recent interview.
"I am a human being and made a terrible mistake out of love, grief and anger, and believe me, I am paying for it every single minute of the day."
Prosecutors say that just days after the attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania a decade ago, Stroman began carefully plotting revenge. At the time, he was free on bail for previous crimes.
On September 15, 2001, Stroman shot Hasan in the head while the man was grilling hamburgers in his convenience store. The 46-year-old Pakistani native had moved to the Dallas area that year to start a new life with his family.
Six days later, Stroman shot Bhuiyan in the face while he manned the counter at a gas station. Bhuiyan survived, but was left blind in one eye.
Then, on October 4, Stroman attempted to rob the Mesquite, Texas, gas station operated by Patel. Surveillance tapes showed the suspect waving a .44-caliber chrome-plated pistol at the clerk and demanding, "Open the register or I'll kill you." The 49-year-old Patel, a Hindu, tried to reach for his gun hidden under the counter, but Stroman shot the man in the chest. He left without taking any cash and was arrested the next day.
It was for that crime that Stroman was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death. During the sentencing phase, he made an obscene hand gesture to Hasan's relatives.
Stroman claimed his sister was on a top floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower when it and the adjacent South Tower collapsed after airliners were deliberately crashed into the buildings. But that claim was never substantiated during his murder trial and was not raised by his appellate attorney.
In a recent posting on his prison blog, Stroman says the 9/11 attacks sparked something inside him.
"Let's just say that I could not think clearly anymore and I am sorry to say I made innocent people pay for my rage, anger, grief and loss," he wrote.
Citing his own statements to fellow inmates, a federal appeals court, in denying his claims, concluded that Stroman believed that the U.S. government "hadn't done their job, so he was going to do it for them" by retaliating.
The man told his lawyers he once belonged to the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang, and has a long criminal history of burglary, armed robbery and theft.
Of the 19 9/11 hijackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was Lebanese and one was Egyptian, according to federal authorities.
Although he testified against his attacker, Bhuiyan has campaigned against Stroman's execution. A devout Muslim who came to the United States to pursue his education, Bhuiyan was working an extra job a decade ago and was about to be married.
He said a large "angry" man wearing a bandanna, sunglasses and a baseball cap approached him in the store and asked, "Where are you from?" Confused, Bhuiyan asked, "Excuse me?" Immediately afterward, he remembered being shot, "the sensation of a million bees stinging my face, and then heard an explosion."
But Bhuiyan has created a website, worldwithouthate.org, to urge Texas to spare Stroman's life. He also filed a "friend of the court" brief last week in the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, supporting Stroman's requested stay of execution.
"I -- and here I act as a spokesperson for the other victims' families as well -- have been denied our proper voice in the proceedings," Bhuiyan said in the court documents. "We do not wish to see Mark Stroman executed for his crimes. For myself, it is clear that nothing would cause more devastation and pain to the life I struggled to rebuild after the attack than for Mark Stroman to be killed."
Kinda interesting story, but the bolded part is weird.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/07/20/texas.execution/index.html
I don't find it that weird. The man has compassion. Honestly, I wouldn't want someone executed for my sake.
The guy may not be thinking clearly. He was shot in the head after all.
I think it's called forgiveness.
Yeah, and while it's fine and commendable for the victims of a crime to be forgiving, the legal system shouldn't be influenced by that IMO.
Don't get the thread title. Where do Arabs come into play here?
Quote from: citizen k on July 22, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
I think it's called forgiveness.
Even if you don't love me anymore? :(
Why the hell is this thread called "Arab killer"? I count an Indian, who is almost certainly a Hindu (Patel, most likely a Vaishnavite Gujarati), and a Pakistani (statistically most likely a Punjabi), and a Bengali.
Yeah what's up with that?
Quote from: dps on July 22, 2011, 02:37:28 PM
Yeah, and while it's fine and commendable for the victims of a crime to be forgiving, the legal system shouldn't be influenced by that IMO.
What should the legal system be influenced by?
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on July 22, 2011, 02:45:42 PM
Yeah what's up with that?
:lol: My sweet Don Henley reference cost me precious moments.
Quote from: Razgovory on July 22, 2011, 02:49:22 PM
Quote from: dps on July 22, 2011, 02:37:28 PM
Yeah, and while it's fine and commendable for the victims of a crime to be forgiving, the legal system shouldn't be influenced by that IMO.
What should the legal system be influenced by?
My will.
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on July 22, 2011, 02:45:42 PM
Yeah what's up with that?
It's Timmy.
Oh... wait... it's Marty.
Same thing really.
Quote from: Ideologue on July 22, 2011, 02:50:11 PM
:lol: My sweet Don Henley reference cost me precious moments.
I figure your made up thing about Patels was the real difference.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 22, 2011, 03:12:18 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on July 22, 2011, 02:50:11 PM
:lol: My sweet Don Henley reference cost me precious moments.
I figure your made up thing about Patels was the real difference.
That's not made up. :huh: Patel is far commoner as a name for Hindus than it is for Muslims, is a far commoner name for Gujaratis than other ethnic groups in India, and given that Vaishnava is the commonest form of Hinduism in Gujarat, a Patel is likelier to be a Vaishnavite than a Shaivite or Smartist.
I was just jerking your chain bro.
Also the article said he was a Hindu.
Quote from: Ideologue on July 22, 2011, 03:20:15 PM
Patel is likelier to be a Vaishnavite than . . . Smartist.
No need to be insulting. :mad:
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 22, 2011, 03:26:13 PM
I was just jerking your chain bro.
-_- My sense of humor's broken today.
Quote from: citizen k on July 22, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
I think it's called forgiveness.
Or weakness, cowardness, self-hatred.
I could be trying to feel morally superior. Or it could be stockholm syndrome.
People are weird. Some people feel emotionally rewarded when they "forgive" their oppressors.
Pretty much what I feel when I coldly kill my oppressors.
Quote from: Siege on July 25, 2011, 08:00:57 PM
Quote from: citizen k on July 22, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
I think it's called forgiveness.
Or weakness, cowardness, self-hatred.
I could be trying to feel morally superior. Or it could be stockholm syndrome.
People are weird. Some people feel emotionally rewarded when they "forgive" their oppressors.
Pretty much what I feel when I coldly kill my oppressors.
Have you ever forgiven someone who has deeply wronged you?
Quote from: Razgovory on July 25, 2011, 08:09:57 PM
Quote from: Siege on July 25, 2011, 08:00:57 PM
Quote from: citizen k on July 22, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
I think it's called forgiveness.
Or weakness, cowardness, self-hatred.
I could be trying to feel morally superior. Or it could be stockholm syndrome.
People are weird. Some people feel emotionally rewarded when they "forgive" their oppressors.
Pretty much what I feel when I coldly kill my oppressors.
Have you ever forgiven someone who has deeply wronged you?
Remember, the New Testament is for
pussies.
Quote from: Razgovory on July 25, 2011, 08:09:57 PM
Quote from: Siege on July 25, 2011, 08:00:57 PM
Quote from: citizen k on July 22, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
I think it's called forgiveness.
Or weakness, cowardness, self-hatred.
I could be trying to feel morally superior. Or it could be stockholm syndrome.
People are weird. Some people feel emotionally rewarded when they "forgive" their oppressors.
Pretty much what I feel when I coldly kill my oppressors.
Have you ever forgiven someone who has deeply wronged you?
Only muslims have deeply wronged me, and no, I have never forgiven them.
However I do forgive and forget slights by my fellow citizens, since it is against my nature to hold grudges outside of war.
I am inmune to roadrage, for example, and I have walked away from guys traying to pick up a fight with me at bars.
I am the real deal and I have nothing to proof by fighting drunks at a bar.
People that drink to find their courage are despicable cowards.
On the other hand, I have never been punched in a fight since adulthood.
I had a shitload of fights when young, but they were mostly with my brothers and cousins.
I come from a big family and we had daily fights. Though they would only let me fight outsiders if the fight was fair.
I don;t know how I would I react if anyone were to just walk to me and try to punch me. Hopefully I will be able to duck and run.
Now if somebody tried to robb me, I think that would be diferent. I really, really hate criminals and delicuents that robb their own people.
I fear I might not be able to contain myself, especially if they outnumber me. That would makes me feel like the poor middle eastern jew being cornered by thugs.
I've always liked Siege, but just like Lennie from Of Mice and Men I've always sadly felt that he must be put down for the sake of society :(.
Quote from: Razgovory on July 22, 2011, 02:11:08 PM
I don't find it that weird. The man has compassion. Honestly, I wouldn't want someone executed for my sake.
Texas is not executing the guy for the other dude's sake. Texas is executing the guy for killing the other two dudes. Sorry, "guy" and "dude" used since I did not read the article. :D