neptunechimney wrote:
www.alternet.org/story/151535/
"The 10 Scariest GOP Governors: Bringing a Radical Right-Wing Agenda To a State Near You
The 2010 election saw a right-wing sweep of many state governor's races, and those governors haven't been shy about pushing their conservative shock treatment.
That article certainly isn't unbiased, but while scanning though it I came across this about Rick Perry...
Perry and his hair have been governing Texas since Bush left, and unless he succeeds in seceding from the union or running for president, it looks like he'll be there for a while. So he's had the time to rack up a truly unfair list of achievements, from executing at least one innocent man to hosting Ted Nugent at a concert where Nugent wore a Confederate flag shirt and shouted insults about non-English speakers.
I hadn't heard about executing an "innocent" man before, and it didn't come up in the Rick Perry for president thread we had here.
Reading about it, it was a case of a father accused of buring down his house to kill his three girls. The strongest evidence the state had was an investigation finding the house fire was due to arson, and they had a fellow inmate testify that the guy confessed to him.
Well, the inmate was given early release, was bipolar, and later recanted his testimony. And several later investigations found fault in the arson report and concluded there was no evidence of arson.
I won't go into whether the guy was guilty or not, because who knows for sure?
But Perry did some irresponsible things, IMO. First he did receive a report shortly before the execution which concluded there was no arson. Without the arson being proved, there is no way I could see where this guy would of gotten the death sentence, even in Texas. A convited inmate's testimony wouldn't be enough, and such testimony is frowned on in many states. But Perry did nothing, not even grant a delay.
Next, the case was reopened in 2009 (after the execution) to again review reports that there was no arson. There was a review by the Texas Forensic Science Commission and two days before a review of the evidence of no arson, Perry replaced three of the commissioners, including the chair. The new chair cancelled the meeting. Eventually, in July 2010, the Commission did find that "flawed science" had been used to determine that the blaze had been intentionally set. By replacing the commissioners, Perry in effect prevented this report from coming out during his reelection campaign.
Unless there is some explanation out there that I'm missing, I think Perry's actions in this case should keep him from consideration as President.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Todd_Willingham
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann
