Odin: did this man read VOLLEYTALK?

[bigfan]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083155/Gary-Roland-execution-Murderer-goes-death-chanting-prayers-Norse-god.html

Slay the beast! First executed murderer of 2012 goes to his death chanting prayers to Odin, Norse god of war

A convicted murderer who tried but failed to kill himself three weeks ago in prison was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday in Oklahoma in the country's first execution of 2012.
Before his execution, Gary Roland Welch acknowledged ‘my brothers’ and offered prayers to the Norse god of war Odin.
Welch, who was sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of Robert Dean Hardcastle during a drug dispute in 1994, was declared dead at 6:10 p.m. on Thursday at the state prison in McAlester.

Welch was the first U.S. inmate executed this year, and the first in Oklahoma since January 2011, which tracks death penalty data. He was 49 years old.

Welch acknowledged 'my brothers' in prison before his execution and said: 'So let's get it on because that's what we're here for,' prison spokesman Jerry Massie said, quoting execution witnesses.
At a pre-execution hearing, he was unrepentant. 'I was right on 8/25/94, and I'm right now,' he said, Tulsaworld.com reports.

'I'm not coming up here today crying, begging and sniveling for my life. I'm only here to speak my mind.'


Welch then repeated four times, 'Valhalla, Odin, slay the beast,' Mr Massie said. Welch had studied Norse mythology behind bars.
He likely quoted the Poetic Edda and the book Völuspá, written in the 13th century.
Odin is the chief god in Norse mythology, a violent god of death and war, though he is also the god of poetry and wisdom. [/color]


'Valhalla, Odin, slay the beast!'
-Convicted murderer Gary Welch's last words [/color]


Valhalla, according to Norse mythology, is the hall in which he receives slain heroes.

[Odin]

Nay.

[Thrill of the 'ville]

Maybe he was just a big Marvel Comics fan and was really into the Fear Itself event.

[mikegarrison]

I think this angle to the story is in pretty poor taste, actually. If he had been praying to the Christian god, or to no god at all, nobody would have noted it.

I do think I can understand the appeal of the Norse mythology to someone who thinks of himself as a warrior.

On a side note, he was executed for a single murder which was possibly even in self-defense? OK, so he was a meth-head with a history of violent crime, but the death penalty is applied much too randomly. And paradoxically, it's also applied too slowly. If you are going to keep a guy in prison for almost 20 years, why kill him at the end of that? It just seems like a waste all-around.