I’m not very moved by the “the jury has made their decision” reponse. Juries can be wrong, especially when you have — as is the case in many death penalty cases — incompetent lawyers, mistaken witnesses or with-held evidence.

Texas governors don’t sign death warrants, judges do.

Texas Governors cannot commute or grant clemency without a majority vote of the Texas Pardons and Parole Board, supportive of those decisions.

The Board voted against commutation in those 57 cases, where it was requested. The Governor appoints the Board.

Then Governor Bush stated two reason for upholding death sentences.

1) The appellate courts had already found that the murderers had received proper due process; and

2) Bush respected the juries decisions, particularly in light of the appellate courts findings. He did not want to act like the 13th juror, who by himself, would overturn the 12 juror, unanimous decision to execute.

Bush preferred the democratic position.

I’ll add a third reason. The murderers didn’t deserve commutation.

I think that many can find reason to condemn President Bush’s decision, with regard to Scooter Libby’s commutation.

One can say, with some assurance, that wrongly commuting the sentence of a murderer – which death penalty opponents desire for all cases – is considerably more worthy of condemnation than the commutation of a convicted liar.

additional point:

Juries or judges, not governors, are responsible for giving death sentences in Texas.

Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters
e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com, 713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas

Mr. Sharp has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, C-Span, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS and many other TV and radio networks, on such programs as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, etc., has been quoted in newspapers throughout the world and is a published author.

A former opponent of capital punishment, he has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.