Murderer Seeks to End Appeals:  A Mississippi man sentenced to death for the murder of his estranged wife has asked that his appeals be halted and his execution carried out.  Jeff Amy of the Associated Press reports that the state supreme court has ordered a judge to hold a hearing to determine if the murderer, David Cox, is mentally competent to waive his appeals.  Courthouse News Service reported that Kim Cox left her husband after he was arrested for raping her 12-year-old daughter.  He spent nine months in jail before being released on bail.  Once free, Cox located his wife at her sister's house and shot her in the abdomen, then repeatedly raped the daughter as her critically wounded mother watched, maintaining a standoff with police until Kim died.  Cox plead guilty to the murder and rape and a jury sentenced him to death.  In a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Cox requested that his lawyers be fired and his execution date set.  In another letter Cox told the District Attorney that he would happily dig up his dead wife so he could kill her again.  Cox's defense attorneys have petitioned to have his sentence overturned, arguing that his difficult childhood, drug use and mental condition make his ineligible for execution.

Taking On Black Lives Matter:  The former member of a black street gang in Brooklyn has authored a piece today's American Thinker disputing the claims of racist police made by Black Lives Matter as well as the group's goals.  Mental health specialist Thomas Maynard writes that the BLM movement has "lost its legitimacy and deteriorated into an excuse for unacceptable behavior."  He notes that black and Hispanic criminals shot by police are depicted as heroes although their own behavior was the cause of their deaths.  While "most shootings by police involving blacks and Hispanic males are justified....most African Americans do not come together until it involves an incident with a white police officer."