 |
Jackson Executed for Rape, Murder of Williamsburg WomanBy Sam Thrift Friday, August 19, 2011 Jerry Terrell Jackson was executed by lethal injection Thursday night at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.A Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court jury convicted Jackson in 2002 for the rape and murder of 88-year-old Ruth Phillips, who was killed in her Williamsburg home in 2001. Jackson, who was raised in James City County, was 20 at the time. He was also convicted of burglary, robbery and petit larceny. Maj. Steve Rubino of the James City County Police Department said on Aug. 16, 2001, Jackson broke into Phillips’ apartment, located in the Rolling Meadow Apartment Complex off Longhill Road, with the intent to steal. Phillips was asleep in her bed when she woke up to Jackson rifling through her purse. Jackson smothered Phillips with a pillow while he raped her, then stole $60 and her car. Phillips' son, concerned because his mother didn't answer her phone and she was expected at church, discovered her body the next day. Rubino said a fingerprint from papers in Phillips' purse linked Jackson to the crime, along with DNA from hairs that were found on and around her body. Jackson's attorneys had been hoping for an intervention that would stop the execution. They filed a petition for clemency on July 29, requesting Gov. Bob McDonnell commute the sentence of death to a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. McDonnell declined to intervene last week. Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Jackson's appeal. After Jackson's execution, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued a statement, which said in part, "The just sentence of death has now been carried out. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the family and friends of Ruth Phillips." |
|
Copyright © 2010-2011 WY Daily. Davis Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Website by Web-tactics
Website by Web-tactics
Comments
The is no reversing an execution. It is better to leave them in jail for the rest of their life. Killing someone doesn't become right just because the state supports it. All it does is feed a need for revenge.
And yes, this mercy extends even to those who have committed the most vile crimes deserve this because, as the Bible is very clear about, they too are children of God.
What a horror, that so many Christians are not interested in humane justice as modeled by Christ. Instead they revel in bloodthirsty revenge killing.
All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, and as Christ himself taught, only those without sin should be throwing stones.
Shame on Governor McDonnell for allowing this to happen when he could have stopped it. McDonnell himself comes from a Christ-centered background and lauds it at election time, yet now has taken away the chances for this young man to find the saving love of Christ for himself.
The governor, like all believers, has received unparalleled mercy from God. But sadly he has not payed it forward to others when God entrusted him with power. I hope God has more mercy on the governor than the governor has shown to others.
"Thou Shall Not Kill."
So, are you in or out faith-wise?
"Thou shalt not kill" is a King James translation. The true translation is murder rather than kill. Most bible translations use murder rather than kill as this presents the correct meaning.
The young man's story is sad, but no one has the right to take another life unless it is in self defense or defense of another.
To Richard F:
How many letters have you written protesting other uses of Government money? The cost of keeping this guy in prison for life is minuscule compared to other wasteful and fraudulent Government expenditures. The cost of one Air Foece bomber could probable pay for all the prison inmates in the US for 20 years.
If VA's prison system operated efficiently, prisons would be largely self-supporting , as they used to be in the past. Make this guy work for the state for the rest of his life.
"Thou shalt not kill" is a King James translation. The true translation is murder rather than kill. Most bible translations use murder rather than kill as this presents the correct meaning.
The young man's story is sad, but no one has the right to take another life unless it is in self defense or defense of another.
So, are you in or out faith-wise?