Interesting Links, 27 March 2010

Some guy riding on the back of a giant housefly.

Super criminals in action.

Gives me a case of the willies just to look. He has a helmet on, so he'll be okay.

Some probably innocent people who have been executed. Check out the paragraph acknowleging those who have tried to make a difference, near the beginning of the third line. It's Rob Owen.

What Others are Saying: 27 Mar 2010

There's a nice article about A Wife's Undying Love For Her Man on Death Row on Inquirer.net. I wrote of the same person recently in Meet Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner. A couple of take-away quotes from the Inquirer article:

Texas is my second home. ... It is a state that I love a lot and I have met a lot of extraordinary people here.

The only time when I will be able to touch him is after his execution, at the funeral – a day I hope never comes. ... It won't change anything. ... Whatever happens, we will always be together. Death is not an end in itself.

Impressed yet?

Meet Rob Owen

Rob Owen is Hank Skinner's attorney. Hank Skinner owes his life to Rob. 

Rob has now twice pulled a last-minute rabbit from a hat. Previously, Rob managed to delay Hank's execution by finding a clerical error in the death warrant. I wrote about that briefly in The Wisdom of a Clerical Error. That gave Rob time, and just barely, to extract the second rabbit.

Interesting Links, 26 Mar 2010

Want to see what a convicted forger does to kill time while in prison?  Of course you do. It's pretty amazing.

Want to see the easy life of a housewife in 2000, as predicted by Popular Mechanics in 1954? Of course you do. It's pretty funny.

Want to make people confess? Want to resist confessing to a crime you didn't commit? Of course you do. It's pretty unsettling.

Meet Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner

I don't claim to know Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner. I have never met her. We have communicated only in a pair of very brief emails. I am, however, aware of her cogent and unfettered defense of her husband. I figure it appropriate, therefore, that you learn of her through her words.  First, I submit  for your consideration the biographical portion of a letter she sent to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

My name is Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner, I am a 49-year old French national. I am a freelance production manager working for the film industry on feature films, commercials and documentaries. My work experience has given me the opportunity to work on numerous pictures for major studios in Hollywood over the past 21 years. I am the mother of a 22-year old daughter who is currently in Medical School in Paris, France.