David Powell Executed

David Lee Powell was executed in Huntsville last night (06.15.10)

Powell, 59, was sentenced to death for the murder of Austin police officer Ralph Ablanedo 32 years ago. Seven members of Ablanedo's family watched silently from nearby as Powell took his last breath.

Powell had no final words. The lethal cocktail of drugs began to flow through his veins at 6:10pm. He was pronounced dead nine minutes later.

After the execution, Bruce Mills, a former Austin police officer who was a friend of the victim and later married his widow, said he felt as if a weight had been lifted. "Relief would be the word to describe it."

Yes. An old used-up convict who had already served 32 years on death row with excemplary behaviour, and who was "infinitely sorry that [he] killed Ralph Ablanedo", has been executed. What a relief.

Powell was a model inmate in the 3 decades he spent on death row. He helped illiterate prisoners to learn to read and counseled others on death row. He was no longer a threat to society.

Roughly 150 current and former Austin police officers waited outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas, where the death chamber is located.


There were protesters there too. When it became obvious that the execution was going to go ahead, they stood silently and kept their distance from the officers.

So Powell is dead. Ablanedo is still dead. Ablanedo would still be dead if Powell's sentence had been paroled to life without parole. So this was a great use of 32 years worth of time and money. I hope Texas feels mighty proud of itself. Another man dead. The folly.

And so it goes on and on and on...