Why This Last-Minute Trump Blood-Lust?
Donald Trump has chosen to execute thirteen federal death-row inmates for no explainable reason except that he can. What could it be, other than that he personally salivates from the power to take human life?
Remember the Central Park Five?
(Wikipedia) No substantive physical evidence connected any of the five teenagers to the rape scene, but each was convicted in 1990 of related assault and other charges. Subsequently, known as the Central Park Five, they received sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years.
In 1989 The Donald spent $85,000 to place full-page newspaper ads, headlined in capital letters: “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” He wanted them executed, even though the prosecution had asked for no such penalty.
On Dec 19th, 2002 (TIME mag), the convictions of the five men were vacated after a man named Matias Reyes, whose DNA matched evidence from the crime, confessed to having been responsible. The city settled with the five in 2014, giving each roughly $1 million for each year spent behind bars.
Not enough for Trump
Since then, he has repeatedly reiterated the guilty verdict of the men, even though their convictions were vacated. “They admitted they were guilty, the police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same.” Except of course that another man admitted the crime and they were exonerated, as so often happens in the creative justice we dispense today. But the Donald never admits being wrong. Never.
Couldn’t execute The Five, but had the power over thirteen
Abraham Lincoln (to whom Trump most often compares himself) said, “almost all men can survive adversity, but if you want to know the true character of a man give him power.” An interesting take and informative comment on power.
But it’s more than power, it’s blood-lust by an untethered ego
Mr. Trump is now the country's most prolific execution president in more than a hundred years, ordering the execution of thirteen death row inmates since July of this year, the last of them in a flurry of fury before he leaves office. These were the first federal executions in seventeen years—on hold, as 60% of citizens want the death penalty done away with and methods of execution are ever more highly controversial. But the pause has been un-paused. Trump’s thirst, unquenched by The Five has been slaked by his sole ability to kill thirteen people. No one would or could stop him this time.