steinbeck

 

from film portrayals of lennie small 

in john steinbeck's of mice and men -

adapted for film several times,

also for stage and radio.

pleas for justice fall again upon deaf ears as the state of texas executes a developmentally disabled man named marvin wilson who had an i.q. of 61.

robert mackey with the new york times reports that john steinbeck's family has expressed outrage that a texas judge used of mice and men to support the decision to take marvin wilson's life.  thomas steinbeck, the writer's son, released a statement reading, in part:

On behalf of the family of John Steinbeck, I am deeply troubled by today’s scheduled execution of Marvin Wilson, a Texas man with an I.Q. of 61. Prior to reading about Mr. Wilson’s case, I had no idea that the great state of Texas would use a fictional character that my father created to make a point about human loyalty and dedication, i.e., Lennie Small from “Of Mice and Men,” as a benchmark to identify whether defendants with intellectual disability should live or die.

My father was a highly gifted writer who won the Nobel Prize for his ability to create art about the depth of the human experience and condition. His work was certainly not meant to be scientific, and the character of Lennie was never intended to be used to diagnose a medical condition like intellectual disability. I find the whole premise to be insulting, outrageous, ridiculous and profoundly tragic. I am certain that if my father, John Steinbeck, were here, he would be deeply angry and ashamed to see his work used in this way. And the last thing you ever wanted to do, was to make John Steinbeck angry.

 

mr. mackey continues:

In 1937, the novelist himself told The New York Times that the model for his character, a killer who did not comprehend his own actions, was shown leniency by the American legal system of the time. “Lennie was a real person,” Mr. Steinbeck said. “He’s in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks. He didn’t kill a girl. He killed a ranch foreman. Got sore because the boss had fired his pal and stuck a pitchfork right through his stomach. I hate to tell you how many times I saw him do it. We couldn’t stop him until it was too late.”

the following youtube was released by democracy now! the night before mr. marvin was executed, and includes discussion with mr. wilson's attorney, lee korvarsky, and richard dieter, executive director of the death penalty information center, a nonprofit group working to educate the public about capital punishment.

mr. dieter says that texas is disturbingly experimenting with humans in new ways to execute death row prisoners, and that they are purchasing various drugs for execution indirectly from european companies that did not manufacture the drugs for this purpose.  

the european nations - which have outlawed capital punishment - are expressing outrage that these drugs are being used to execute people in the united states.

the texas tribune reports that prior to mr. wilson's execution, and amidst an outcry of objections, 

State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, on Monday wrote to Gov. Rick Perry seeking a stay of execution on Wilson's behalf. Human Rights Watch also decried the planned execution.

“Texas is circumventing the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment,” said Antonio Ginatta, U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.