Funny, That's Not What He Said In All Those Death Penalty Cases
Carl Hulse and David D. Kirkpatrick of The New York Times quote a statement by George Bush explaining why he signed the measure that would allow a federal court to intervene in the Schiavo case:
"In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life."
Really?
Anthony Lewis reviews Bush's record as executioner-in-chief in the state of Texas, a man who Alexander Cockburn says has "signed more death warrants than any other elected official alive today in America":
In answer to questions about that record, Governor Bush has repeatedly said that he has no qualms. "I'm confident," he said last February, "that every person that has been put to death in Texas under my watch has been guilty of the crime charged, and has had full access to the courts."That defense of the record ignores many notorious examples of unfairness in Texas death penalty cases. Lawyers have been under the influence of cocaine during the trial, or been drunk or asleep. One court dismissed a complaint about a lawyer who slept through a trial with the comment that courts are not "obligated to either constantly monitor trial counsel's wakefulness or endeavor to wake counsel should he fall asleep."
This past week The Chicago Tribune published a compelling report on an investigation of all 131 death cases in Governor Bush's time. It made chilling reading.
In one-third of those cases, the report showed, the lawyer who represented the death penalty defendant at trial or on appeal had been or was later disbarred or otherwise sanctioned. In 40 cases the lawyers presented no evidence at all or only one witness at the sentencing phase of the trial.
In 29 cases, the prosecution used testimony from a psychiatrist who -- based on a hypothetical question about the defendant's past -- predicted he would commit future violence. Most of those psychiatrists testified without having examined the defendant: a practice condemned professionally as unethical.
Other witnesses included one who was temporarily released from a psychiatric ward to testify, a pathologist who had admitted faking autopsies and a judge who had been reprimanded for lying about his credentials.
Asked about the Tribune study, Governor Bush said, "We've adequately answered innocence or guilt" in every case. The defendants, he said, "had full access to a fair trial."
There are two ways of understanding that comment. Either Governor Bush was contemptuous of the facts or, on a matter of life and death, he did not care.
Oops, but those cases had nothing to do with overturning Roe v. Wade, now did they?
That old saying "Anyone can convict a guilty man, but it takes a great prosecutor to get an innocent man convicted," came from a Texas prosecutor, didn't it?
I guess not much has changed in the Lone Star State since The Thin Blue Line was made.
Little ted at March 21, 2005 11:30 AM
Just to put things right in one case: The governor of Texas CANNOT set aside a death penalty. He or she may only order one stay of 30 days. This is a result of there being some question as to whether Jim and Miriam Ferguson were selling clemency in the past.
Radwaste at March 21, 2005 3:26 PM
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