REMEMBERING TYUS SNEED AND KEENAN HUBERT (BOTH DIED ON MARCH 28, 2011 IN WACO, TEXAS)

            On this date, March 28, 2011, two African American teens, Tyus Sneed and Keenan Hubert were both shot dead by Rickey Donnell Cummings. Rickey Donnell Cummings was convicted of capital murder in the March 28, 2011 shooting deaths of Tyus Sneed, 17, and Keenan Hubert, 20, as they sat in the back seat of the car at the Lakewood Villas apartment complex, 1601 Spring St, Waco, Texas. Demontrae Majors, 22, and Marion Bible, 23, who were in the front seat of the car, were wounded but managed to flee to the safety of a nearby apartment. 

            We, Victims’ Families For the Death Penalty, were satisfied that Cummings was sentenced to death on Wednesday November 7, 2012, some justice was served here. Let us not forget the two boys by hearing from their parents in this previous blog post.

  

Robert Sneed, father of shooting victim Tyus Sneed, is overcome by emotions after Rickey Cummings was convicted of capital murder Friday. Rod Aydelotte / Waco Tribune-Herald

IN LOVING MEMORY OF FRANK MEZIERE (JULY 31, 1974 TO MARCH 26, 1998)

            Let us not forget Frank Meziere who was murdered on this date, March 26, 1998. The Killer, Yokamon Laneal Hearn was executed by lethal injection in Texas on July 18, 2012. Let us hear from his family members:

  

Frank Meziere

Birth:	Jul. 31, 1974
Death:	Mar. 26, 1998
Joseph Franklin Meziere No Author Published: March 29, 1998 Oklahoman MEZIERE Joseph Franklin, 23, of Plano, passed away March 26, 1998. Frank was born on July 31, 1974 to Steve and Jacquelyn Meziere. Frank graduated from Plano East High School in 1992 and attended A&M University in which he graduated with a degree in 1996. Frank pursued his career as a Stock Broker working it Merrill Lynch Corp in Dallas. He was also a member of the Aggie Alumni Association. Frank is survived by his parents,Steve and Jacque; brother, Matt; grandparents, Virginia Minton and Mabel Meziere of Oklahoma City; and numerous other retatives and friends. Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Monday, March 30, 1998, at 1:00 PM at St. Mark's Catholic Church. Burial will follow at Plano Mutual Cemetery. BIOG: NAME: UPD:

Summary: Frank Meziere had watched a Dallas Mavericks basketball game at a restaurant with a friend and before heading home decided to stop at a self-service car wash to clean his black Mustang convertible. The 23-year-old Plano stockbroker, a 1996 Texas A&M University graduate, never made it home. His body was found the next day, March 26, 1998, along the side of a road in an industrial area of Oak Cliff, an area of south Dallas. Evidence admitted at trial established that on March 25, 1998, then 19-year-old Yokamon Laneal Hearn and three others drove to North Dallas for the expressed purpose of making some money. The group carried with them two shotguns, a .22 caliber pistol, and a Tec-9 automatic. At about 10:30 p.m. the group observed Frank Meziere preparing to wash his 1994 Mustang in a coin-operated car wash. Hearn devised a plan to steal the car and instructed his accomplices how to proceed. Hearn and his companions abducted Frank Meziere at gunpoint and drove him to a secluded location where Hearn used the Tec-9 to shoot Meziere in the face. Meziere died as the result of twelve close-range gunshot wounds to the head and upper body. The assailants then took Frank's wallet and personal items. Hearn then drove away in Meziere’s Mustang in search of a “chop shop” for stolen cars. A city electrician discovered Meziere’s body in a patch of grass in a roadside field around 6:00 am the next morning. Two hours later a patrol officer discovered Meziere’s abandoned Mustang in a shopping center parking lot. Hearn and his companions were caught on videotape by a security camera at a convenience store adjacent to the car wash. Hearn and Delvin Diles were arrested several days later when police acted on a tip they received. Meziere's father said at the time, "I just hope justice can be done as soon as possible. I've always been in favor of the death penalty, and I stand by that now." Dallas County criminal records showed Diles had received 5 years of probation the previous summer after pleading guilty to a felony burglary charge; Hearn had been charged with misdemeanor theft, a case which was still pending at the time of Frank's murder. Physical evidence linked both Hearn and Diles to the car. Diles, 19 at the time, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to consecutive life terms for Meziere's death and an unrelated aggravated robbery. Teresa Shirley, then 19, and Dwight Burley, then 20, were arrested more than 8 months later. Each pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and received 10-year prison sentences. At Hearn's trial, Shirley testified that she was the driver of the second car. She said that Meziere had his arms raised and appeared to be begging for his life as Hearn swung a Tec-9 semiautomatic rifle back and forth. The rifle, Shirley testified, had been stolen in an apartment burglary the previous day. Hearn fired at Meziere and kept shooting him even after he fell to the ground. Diles also shot at the victim several times with his revolver, she testified. Shirley further testified that Hearn later bragged about the killing. She said he waved around a newspaper account stating that Meziere had been shot in the head - or "domed" in street slang, and he told her, "I told you I domed him. I told you. I told you." At age 19, Hearn had no prior felony convictions. Testimony at his punishment hearing indicated that he had an unadjudicated history of burglary, robbery, sexual assault, and other offenses. A jury convicted Hearn of capital murder in December 1998 and sentenced him to death.

Frank Meziere’s father, brother and uncle were among those who witnessed Hearn’s lethal injection. “We did not come today to view this execution for revenge or to even the score,” the family said afterward in a statement. “What this does is give our family and friends the knowledge that Mr. Hearn will not have the opportunity to hurt anyone else.”  

JESUS HAD TO DIE BY DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

 

“Jesus Christ has to suffer and be rejected. … Suffering and being rejected are not the same. Even in his suffering Jesus could have been the celebrated Christ. Indeed, the entire compassion and admiration of the world could focus on the suffering. Looked upon as something tragic, the suffering could in itself convey its own value, its own honor and dignity. But Jesus is the Christ who was rejected in his suffering. Rejection removed all dignity and honor from his suffering. It had to be dishonorable suffering. Suffering and rejection express in summary form the cross of Jesus. Death on the cross means to suffer and to die as one rejected and cast out. It was by divine necessity that Jesus had to suffer and be rejected. Any attempt to hinder what is necessary is satanic. Even, or especially, if such an attempt comes from the circle of disciples, because it intends to prevent Christ from being Christ. The fact that it is Peter, the rock of the church, who makes himself guilty doing this just after he has confessed Jesus to be the Christ and has been commissioned by Christ, shows that from its very beginning the church has taken offense at the suffering of Christ. It does not want that kind of Lord, and as Christ's church it does not want to be forced to accept the law of suffering from its Lord.” [p. 84 of Discipleship and the Cross]

AUTHOR: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German: [ˈdiːtʁɪç ˈboːnhœfɐ]; February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi and founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and many have labelled his book The Cost of Discipleship a modern classic.

Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later he was transferred to a Nazi concentration camp. After being allegedly associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was briefly tried, along with other accused plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office), and then executed by hanging on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime collapsed, just two weeks before Allied forces liberated the camp and three weeks before Hitler's suicide.