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| Rick Perry |
First was the crowd’s reaction at the mention of this state’s leading execution statistic, a record 234 of them under Gov. Rick Perry. The audience actually applauded the body count tallied in Huntsville over the last 11 years.
That bizarre outburst set the stage for the governor’s defense of his record, and, with the crowd behind him, it probably was a politically effective media moment for the governor.
Yet the justice system Perry depicted is not the system that comes into focus when taking a hard look at the facts. His is a black-and-white rendition: bad crime, fair trial, thorough review, last words on a gurney.
The reality of Texas justice is not so sound-bite simple. The fight for fairness and truth can be an agonizing and often futile one.
Debate moderator Brian Williams might have thought he had a clever question — do you sleep well at night, governor? — but that overlooked the goings-on in Texas even as he spoke.
A better question might have focused on the refusal by Texas courts to permit forensic analysis of untested evidence in the Hank Skinner murder case out of West Texas. Does the governor lose sleep over Skinner’s execution date of Nov. 9, or is he confident that the courts will have it all sorted out by then?
Perry also might have been asked about this week’s scheduled execution of convicted double murderer Duane Edward Buck out of Houston. In the trial’s punishment phase, an expert testified that Buck was more likely to be a future danger to society because he is black. Then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn admitted that the state was wrong to allow juries to consider such outrageous testimony in this case and six others, and he asked the Supreme Court to allow for punishment retrials. But technicalities prevented a new sentencing from happening in the Buck case, unlike the others. Has the governor lost sleep over an unconstitutional punishment process?
And has the governor lost a wink thinking about how to address the hideous Anthony Graves miscarriage of justice? Here was a man railroaded by a Central Texas prosecutor in the sensational slayings of six family members. Isn’t it true that Graves might never have been freed last year had it not been for college journalism and law students who laid the foundation for his innocence? Is this the same system in which the governor has unshakable faith?
Perry was right about one thing: The public is generally comfortable with the death penalty. But consider that a mere theoretical statement. Dig deeper into uncomfortable truths and, we think, the public will see hard realities that are impossible to defend.
Source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News, September 12, 2011
Cheering on the Death Machine
Then came Mr. Perry’s blithe denial that he had ever struggled with a single one of those state killings. Texas has a “thoughtful, a very clear process,” he said, which ensures everyone a fair hearing, so there is no need to lose sleep over the possibility of executing an innocent person.
It may not trouble Mr. Perry, but any clear-eyed observer would be shocked at the grim momentum of his state’s death machine, which stops for no suggestion of error. The clearest and best-known illustration of that was the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the home fire that killed his 3 children, despite egregious flaws in the forensic science that helped convict him. In the face of serious questions, Mr. Perry refused to grant a reprieve for Mr. Willingham, and years later replaced the members of a state forensic commission that was about to hold hearings on the execution.
That is hardly the only questionable case during his tenure, as shown by a database developed by The Texas Tribune, a partner of The New York Times. In a recent report, The Tribune described the case of Kelsey Patterson, who was executed for two 1992 shootings despite a recommendation to Mr. Perry for clemency by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on the grounds of clear mental incapacity. He has also approved the execution of a man whose lawyer suffered from mental illness and was repeatedly disciplined; a man involved in a fatal robbery who did not kill the victim; and a man who was 17 at the time of a murder and received clemency recommendations from the trial judge and several legislators.
Mr. Perry is well known for being extremely parsimonious with his clemency authority. His attitude about death may make sense in the hard-edged Republican primaries, but other voters should have serious doubts about a man who seems to have none.
Source: Editorial, New York Times, September 12, 2011
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