On its surface, this situation is either absurd or reflects what becomes of human beings when, as in Texas, executions become so commonplace that the idea of missing cocktails at the club was more than Judge Keller could take. 

If the Talkleft post is the protagonist, then this Beldar reaction is the antagonist.  His knee-jerk reaction, which he fastidiously denies to be knee-jerk by asserting the he wants to know more about the “real story,” is to question whether the attorneys asked that the courthouse doors remain open.  While professing the potential for shock and dismay, if the story turns out to be true, Beldar won’t go there unless Judge Keller says so.  Judge Johnson, apparently, can’t be trusted.

Perhaps this is a Texas thing that a New Yorker like me just doesn’t “get”.  Isn’t an execution of a human being a big enough thing to make sure its handled properly?  Is it so mundane that a judge doesn’t pay any special attention to it?  Is there EVER an excuse for closing the doors to the courthouse to a man about to be killed by the State? 

It seems to me that a judge should have been available to Richards’ attorneys at every second, and perhaps should have kept an open line (if not lent the lawyers a desk in the judge’s chambers) to facilitate a last minute stay.  Perhaps it would have been for naught, with the last ditch effort rebuffed. but at least the opportunity was available.  With the doors locked at 5, the ballgame was over.

Granted that Texas executes people with regularity, making the event far more casual than my parochial sensibilities can appreciate.  I suppose this is what happens following the institutionalization of executions.  But it makes me yearn for a re-release of Phil Ochs song, “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends.”  Sorry Beldar, but there is no excuse for a judge to be so callous on the eve of an execution, no matter whether the attorneys asked to keep the doors open the right way or not.