Bush's execution record

How he made his decisions

I was just reading a few articles about executions in the state of Texas. And found this one regarding Karla Faye Tucker;

http://www.cnn.com/US/9802/03/tucker.executed/index.html

Regardless of the pros and cons of the death penalty, the piece that shocked me was this;

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Her fate then rested with Gov. George W. Bush, who refused to delay the execution with a one-time, 30-day reprieve, saying her case had been thoroughly reviewed by appellate courts.

“Like many touched by this case, I have sought guidance through prayer. I have concluded judgment about the heart and soul of an individual on death row are best left to a higher authority,” Bush said.

“May God bless Karla Faye Tucker and God bless her victims and their families,” he said.


Huh? - Is he for real? - He left it up to ‘God’ to judge her!!!..

These words came from the man who is running your country… I’d be shitting myself if he was my president.

Reminds me of the way they used to test if someone was a witch or not. Throw them in a river; if they float they’re a witch and are burned at the stake. If they sink then they were innocent after all.
Quote (jhonan @ Dec. 01 2004,11:06)
"Like many touched by this case, I have sought guidance through prayer. I have concluded judgment about the heart and soul of an individual on death row are best left to a higher authority," Bush said.

If you look closely, he's saying that it's up to God to judge this woman's heart and soul. The rest was a matter of upholding the legal process in Texas.

Tucker’s crime was heinous but she repented. She was very dignified at her execution.

Bush is reported to spend 1/2 hour reviewing each case. The guy Bush has appointed to Attorney General didn’t even present all circumstanced evidence that might weight toward the criminal.

Make no mistake, God or Jesus never gave us permission to put another person to death, regardless of whether they were a murderer or not.

BTW - aren’t the same people who don’t want abortions, because it’s killing someone, want capital punishment. I’ve always wondered how they rectify that.

While I’m pro-choice and undecided/leaning towards anti on capital punishment, could it be that an unborn child has not had a chance to get itself condemed to a death sentence by 12 of their peers?

I don’t think so :laugh:

Clinton took time off from his 1992 campaign to be in Arkansas for the execution of a
mentally disabled black man in Arkansas named Rickey Ray Rector
… remember ??
He was so brain damaged from a suicide attempt that he asked guards to set aside his piece of
pecan pie so he could eat it after his execution. (This is according to the New York Times)

btw … Rickey Ray Rector is not mentioned in Clinton’s autobiography, “My Lies” .

AbG :cool:



The Death of Liberal Outrage

Wall Street Journal
- By Patrick H. Caddell, who served as a pollster and strategist in the presidential campaigns of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Gary Hart and Walter Mondale; and Marc Cooper, a contributing editor of The Nation.

In early 1992, as then-Gov. Clinton struggled to salvage his presidential candidacy in the face of the Gennifer Flowers scandal, convicted murderer Rector sat on Arkansas’s death row. When his time came for execution, Mr. Clinton flew home from New Hampshire just in time to deny Rector a stay of execution. Rector, an African-American, had turned his gun on himself after killing a police officer at his mother’s house. He blew his brains out, but he survived–condemned to function with the mind of a five-year-old. As he was put on his feet to walk to the death chamber, and with no trace of irony, Rector asked his guards to say hello to Gov. Clinton, whom he had just seen on television, and to save Rector his slice of pecan pie, which he planned to eat when he returned.

It mattered not to Gov. Clinton that the law prohibited the execution of someone not competent to understand his crime or his punishment. Rector’s life was an insignificant price for candidate Clinton to pay to demonstrate his tough “New Democrat” credentials. In the days following the execution, as Mr. Clinton campaigned in the South, he proudly pointed to his willingness to enforce the death penalty.

Where were the liberals? No Hollywood celebrities–no Rob Reiner, no Barbra Streisand–lobbied to spare Rector’s life. There were no NYU emergency speak-outs organized by Sean Wilentz and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. on Rector’s behalf. No panels of Ivy League law professors with Alan Dershowitz screaming for due process. Rep. Maxine Waters was too wrapped up co-chairing Mr. Clinton’s California campaign to invoke her–and Rector’s–“slave ancestors” in a cry for justice as she would six years later on the House floor on behalf of her president. The blatantly pro-Clinton reporters (Liberal Media) who covered the 1992 campaign–Sidney Blumenthal, Eleanor Clift, Strobe Talbott, Joe Klein–barely found time to hiccup over the outrageous execution of Rickey Ray Rector.


… Another case of ‘selective’ outrage ?


-

I love it - blame Clinton again!!! Ali - you do really need a life :laugh:

This has got to be one of the dumbest things I’ve heard. A jury convicted this person. Then appelate courts review it. Even the supreme courts have a look. Then because GW takes a quick look and doesn’t see any real reason to stay the execution it’s all his fault. What about the other hundred or so people that reviewed the case? What is their stake (blame) in this?

I had someone tell me once that Bush killed over a hundred people in texas by using the criminal justice system. As I said above alot of people are involved in a death row case, not just GW.

Brad

You are missing the point (or the truth):

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Throughout the history of the United States, governors or their appointed representatives have exercised the discretionary power to consider clemency petitions and to issue commutations or pardons. In 1976, the United States Supreme Court approved new legal safeguards intended to ensure the fair and impartial application of the death penalty. The Court was nonetheless careful to emphasize the continuing significance of clemency review. A system of capital punishment without executive clemency “would be totally alien to our notions of justice,” the Supreme Court stated.(2)

All US jurisdictions that retain the death penalty have instituted some mechanism for clemency. By 15 May 1999, five hundred and forty prisoners had been put to death since executions resumed in 1977, including 173 in Texas. During that same period, state authorities commuted 40 death sentences on humanitarian grounds nationwide.(3) Excluding Texas, the national ratio of executive commutations to executions was 10.6 per cent; in Texas it was 0.6 per cent.

Executive clemency review takes into consideration more than just post-trial evidence of innocence. Death sentences have also been reduced to terms of imprisonment due to the prisoner’s rehabilitation, the excessiveness of the punishment in relationship to the crime, diminished mental capacity or a juror’s recanted sentencing vote.(4) The absence of meaningful protections against fatal error is even more troubling given the inadequate legal standards that prevail at all levels of the Texas capital justice system.(5) …

“The litigation has exposed to the citizens of Texas the inner workings of the Board of Pardons and Parole in the review of clemency petitions in death-penalty cases. It belongs to the citizens to express their judgement through their assembled representatives in the 76th Legislature as to whether this system adequately ensures that Texas is able to determine when mercy should be given.”
District Judge F. Scott McCown(33)

Over the past two decades, Texas has executed nearly two hundred prisoners. It is inconceivable that a functioning clemency process would have found only one case worthy of mercy and none that merited thorough investigation. Senior officials, newspapers across the state and even the courts have all raised profound concerns over the disgraceful lack of fairness in Texas clemency proceedings.(34)

Three bills have been introduced during the current session of the Texas Legislature, each calling for amendments to state law that would provide for an open and accountable clemency process in death penalty cases.(35) At present, all three bills are stalled in committee hearings, preventing their consideration by the full Legislature.

Amnesty International remains appalled at the absence of any meaningful clemency mechanism in Texas and urges the Texas Legislature to institute immediate and fundamental reforms. In a state that relies solely on the jury’s prediction of “future dangerousness” to sanction a death sentence, it is shocking that no fair process exists for confirming the validity of that prediction prior to the execution.


The criticism of Bush centers around his lack of “interest” in even considering clemency which he could have done.

Mike

Sure, he could have granted clemency to every criminal in the state. What would he say to the mother of a son who was murdered by a criminal he let walk? All the governor can reasonably do is uphold the laws as passed by the states legislature.

Next you guys will be blaming Bush for the weather! This is pathetic…oh, and before you leap on my head with the flame thrower, I’m not exactly Bush’s biggest fan myself.

TG

All the governor can reasonably do is uphold the laws as passed by the states legislature.
Wrong - read above. A governor can grant clemency & has the right to do so. Other governors have & have taken heat for it. If Bush had done it, it would have hurt him politically.

Next you guys will be blaming Bush for the weather! This is pathetic...........
For the record, I have never blamed Bush for this, nor am I now. This is a minor issue in regards to Bush. I am merely pointing out some things in this thread but I don't really care what Bush did to criminals in TX.

What I care about are the innocent civilians and US soldiers that are being killed in Iraq. About invading a country that caused us no immediate threat. That stuff bothers me alot. I consider it immoral. Bush will have to answer for this stuff someday.
Quote (Mr Soul @ Dec. 01 2004,17:23)
All the governor can reasonably do is uphold the laws as passed by the states legislature.

Wrong - read above. A governor can grant clemency & has the right to do so. Other governors have & have taken heat for it. If Bush had done it, it would have hurt him politically.

Next you guys will be blaming Bush for the weather! This is pathetic...........
For the record, I have never blamed Bush for this, nor am I now. This is a minor issue in regards to Bush. I am merely pointing out some things in this thread but I don't really care what Bush did to criminals in TX.

What I care about are the innocent civilians and US soldiers that are being killed in Iraq. About invading a country that caused us no immediate threat. That stuff bothers me alot. I consider it immoral. Bush will have to answer for this stuff someday.
Actually, Bush has been blamed for the weather or atleast his policies. Remember that little thing called global warming?

Just because someone has the power to grant clemency doesn't mean that they should. If he spent a half an hour on it, I would say that is plenty. I'm sure he has staff that spent much more time than that on it. He was advised, looked at the main issues and didn't see any reason to grant clemency (I assume).
Remember that little thing called global warming?

Don't get me started on this! If you want to talk environment, Bush is one of the WORST Presidents that the US has had in YEARS!

Maybe true. For another thread then.

Another bummer! :(

“Bush’s Execution Record”.

I thought it was gonna be a 12" Vinyl of him being electrocuted! :(

"In this nuculer age, we all…zzzzzap!..argh! well, gasp, Dick and I sai…zzzzzap! Bollox! yeah, …the bible says tha…zzzzzappp! Dammit! Screw Kerry! Ouch! …"

And so on.

Listen people, you really have to be a wee bitty more informative with your post titles.

Don’t build up expectations you can’t deliver on!

When someone says, (as they recently did), “A new mixer for my wife”, I expect a genuine swap offer!

The art of writing, and writing headlines, is a learned art, like any other.

So, practice! LOL

Ali

Lol! - Nice one Ali.

You’re right though, I should take my lead from the Sun School of Journalism…

Let’s see…

“Bush’s Hotline to Heaven”
“Dubya’s Death Dilemma”
"Get a Grip George!"

Well… a feeble effort. It really is an acquired skill.

John.

Quote (Mr Soul @ Dec. 01 2004,17:23)
All the governor can reasonably do is uphold the laws as passed by the states legislature.

Wrong - read above. A governor can grant clemency & has the right to do so. Other governors have & have taken heat for it. If Bush had done it, it would have hurt him politically.
Did I not say "can REASONABLY do"? He or any other governor COULD grant clemency. You are right in saying that in some cases doing so could be political suicide. So again, I contend that what he did was uphold the law. (No clemency from fear of public outcry or whatever...) What would YOU do?

TG

PS Global warming? Gimme proof?

Sorry John, I never noticed it was you who started the thread, I just jumped into it from the “Liberal, conservative, beer” topic, and was in a contrary frame of mind! :D

Anyway, I usually know better than to criticise an Irishman’s ability to weave the threads of language into a tapestry of delight! :)

Ali

At the end of the day, what’s it really got to do with clemency? Whatever my personal feelings, it takes a lot to overrule the law, the courts, and the will of the people - which is what you’re actually talking about when you say ‘granting clemency’. Surely the issues which should be discussed are those afore-mentioned ones (the law in those states, the prescribed punishment, the judical system, whether it’s representative etc.) and a system that would put one man in that position, rather than the specifics of what decisions the individual made in that situation.

-Daniel