Frank Moore Executed in Texas

"Self defense is not capital murder," were his last words before the lethal injection took his life. CNN reports on the case of Frank Moore, who never denied having shot and killed two young men outside a San Antonio bar exactly fifteen years ago.

Samuel Boyd and Patrick Clark were shot multiple times in the head and chest early in the morning of January 21, 1994, outside the Wheels of Joy bar.

"They came with intentions to kill me," Moore said in the interview. "It was a do-or-die situation."

The story is that initially no witnesses came forward to support Moore's claim. The prosecutors said he was a long-time gang member, with a lengthy criminal past who shot the two men in cold blood. The jury believed it and sentenced him to death.

A procedural error was found, specifically that the jury had not been given the option to convict him of a lesser charge. The conviction was overturned; he was retried properly, convicted again and sentenced to death again. Seven years later things started to happen.

But it was not until 2006 that a private investigator, who once worked against Moore and his fellow gangsters, came forward with information that Moore said corroborated his self-defense claims.

Warren Huel, a retired Navy Seal who was in charge of the private security firm that oversaw the projects, was the first peace officer on the scene, arriving about 45 minutes before the San Antonio Police Department, according to an affidavit.

During that time, Huel said he spoke with witnesses who reported that Boyd and Clark shot at Moore first from inside the car after trying to run him over, according to the affidavit.

Other witnesses began coming forward, reporting that weapons had been removed from the victims' car, which perfectly supported Moore's story. When Warren Huel tried to introduce this information to the proper authorities, he was met with a sadly typical response.

"I was told that did not matter, as they already had Frank Moore, the murder weapon and an eyewitness," Huel stated in his affidavit. "I was told Moore was a dope dealer and had to go to jail."

Is this another Bush legacy? Does this type of "Texas justice" date from the time when George W. Bush was governor of Texas and set execution records? Or does this mentality of harshly sentencing criminals, even violating their rights to do so, predate the Bush gubernatorial stint? Does it transcend even Texas? I've often seen films and novels attribute to cops a hardened attitude towards criminals which says, "If he didn't do this crime, we know he did others."

What's your opinion? Do you think that's what happened to Frank Moore? Is that OK with you?