"All right, Warden, let's give them what they want." Last words of the doomed.

This one comes around the horn: BoingBoing blogged a Guardian (U.K.) review of Texas Death Row last statements.

Spent this morning reading through them, and the accompanying profiles and crime details, all on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice site. It is both gutwrenchingly sad and utterly chilling. There is clearly no doubt about guilt in some of these cases, and the crimes are hideous. But to be the State, to stand there and execute a human being?

And one point which the Guardian story makes minor mention of – the level of education. I didn't check all 376, but a random sample would put the average offender at probably a mid-to-late high school education. The one standout who had two years of community college cooked up a murder-for-hire scheme that would only have worked on some '50s crime drama.

But it certainly is simpler to execute folks than teach them. At least for Texas.