Buying a painting worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on eBay is simply silly, while trying to buy a kidney is illegal but vaguely understandable. But--buying tickets to view an execution?
In the past year, online auction house eBay has had to cancel auctions in which all three of those items were offered up for sale. The latter was posted at 1:20 P.M. on Wednesday by Texas death row inmate Michael Toney, who had a friend place the five witness tickets he is allotted to his own execution up for sale, eBay confirmed. Toney's message claimed he wanted to raise money to start a trust fund for his two estranged daughters. The tickets carried a minimum bid of $100.
Toney, who has been convicted of burglary and theft four times since 1990 according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, was convicted of murdering three people with a briefcase bomb at a mobile home in Lake Worth, Texas, in 1985, according to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The ticket auction "was down before close of business the same day," eBay spokesperson Kevin Pursglove said. No one bid on the tickets in the four hours they were posted.
"Anyone listing an item for sale [on eBay] has to be in rightful and legal possession of [that item]," Pursglove said. "It was not clear [Toney] is."
For one thing, the listing was made not by Toney, but by a friend acting on his behalf, Pursglove said. More importantly, the Texas director of prisons has final say about who is allowed to witness an execution, and the Star-Telegram reported that a spokesperson for that official said no one who bid on Toney's tickets would be allowed in.
Texas generally grants inmates the right to designate five witnesses to their execution, which is carried out by lethal injection.
"I do not know what kind of people would donate money to watch an innocent man be murdered," Toney's auction description read. "However, I do know that there are people out there that will. Unfortunately, sadists are not in short supply in the cold, cruel world in which we temporarily reside."
Toney was convicted based on the testimony of a jailhouse informant, who told the court Toney bragged about the crime. Toney is appealing the conviction and claims to be innocent, according to the Star-Telegram, which reported the crime. The paper said prosecutors believe he intended the bomb for neighbors of the victim.
In the finest tradition of spokespeople everywhere, Pursglove managed to find a small silver lining in the roiling black cloud that is this story.
"I am always amazed by the media's fascination with these things," he said. "Part of that is eBay is touching people in ways nothing every has. People can use [eBay] not only to buy and sell, but to meet, to form associations. It is a real community. We've become a reflection, in many ways, of current society."
