This is just so wrong

From today's New York Times:

HOUSTON, Oct. 24 — The presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the target of a rising national outcry a month after turning away the last appeal of a death row inmate because the rushed filing was delayed past the court’s 5 p.m. closing time.

The inmate, Michael Richard, was then executed for a 1986 sexual assault and murder — the last person to die in Texas while the United States Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of lethal injection. (Full article here.)

This is a travesty, that it has come to this, that a technicality of timing - because of a computer problem!!!! - is all it takes to kill a man. It doesn't matter that he is innocent or not, this was a clear and undebatable miscarriage of justice. "Sorry, I can't help you, I've got to go have my evening cocktail now, too bad the office is closed, he'll just have to die. Come back on Monday."

The only good news is that there appears to be a de facto nationwide stay of all executions while the US Supreme Court examines the constitutionality of the current lethal injection regimens.

I pray for the time when there will be no executions in the United States. As a Christian, how can I believe and preach about God's forgiveness for any and all sin and then allow the state to take away the opportunity for those who have sinned mortally to repent?

RFSJ