Guilty, Innocent, Guilty

The State of Texas has argued, repeatedly and eloquently, that Jesse DeWayne Jacobs did not pull the trigger of a .38-cal. pistol that killed a woman named Etta Ann Urdiales in 1986. The state convinced a jury that Jacobs did not even know that his sister, who the prosecutor insisted was the trigger person, had a gun at the time the crime was committed. Yet for that crime Jesse DeWayne Jacobs became the first person executed by Texas in 1995.

At 12:02 a.m. last Wednesday, he was strapped to a gurney in Huntsville state prison, his arms pierced by needles attached...