Why Echegaray did not confess guilt until his death? (Reflections on how cheap lives are these days)

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 Why Echegaray did not confess guilt until his death?
(Reflections on how cheap lives are these days)

Anyone can win any argument here whether he espouses Echegary's innocence or his guilt. But to put things in a proper perspective, under our criminal justice system, Echegaray was found guilty and thus, he was sentenced to death. But many firsthand accounts from his priest, lawyer and others who came to his side before his state-sanctioned death claim that he did not confess guilt. Since the supposed natural (and thus, expected) reaction of someone facing death is to say the truth, some believed in his innocence. But he did not confess guilt.

I believe that he was guilty, and I always have in mind that his victim is condemned with the ill-effects of the gruesome crime of rape committed to her by her stepfather. But then, he did not confess guilt.

If Echegaray confessed guilt, our society could have had let go of a sigh showing some relief that we did the right thing: Kill him. But then, he did not confess guilt.

I firmly believe that he did not confess guilt because it could be that in the brain of an alcoholic who had a memory lapse, or in the brain of a drug addict whose brain is short-circuited or in the shrinking brain of any criminal who has a substance abuse history, he committed nothing. So we did the right thing to do to Echegaray: Kill him. That ended his story.

But he did not confess guilt.

And that is his gift to our society, to our humanity, to our civilization. We will always reflect on why he did not confess guilt and not rest on the fact that he deserved to die and that justice is served to the victim.

With the present state-sanctioned deaths vis-a-vis the drug campaign espoused by our President, may the latter and his executive arms (that includes me) always keep in mind why Echegaray did not confess guilt. 

And that killing Echegaray ended his story but not ours as a society.


Photo Credit:
Captioned as Seven men on the gallows, sketch by unknown artist, Bolognese school c. 1630
Taken From http://www.executedtoday.com/?s=leo+frank


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