Reply #3: Perry's denial of stay could become campaign issue

[sonias]

AAS 9/10/09
COMMENTARY: W. GARDNER SELBY
Perry's denial of stay could become campaign issue
Experts say Corsicana man was put to death for killing his children in a fire he didn't start.

Nothing could trouble a governor more than the thought that he or she has let an innocent person die.

"That's the decision that's irreversible," recalls former Gov. Mark White, who said gratefully that he never had a death row case in which the inmate claimed innocence.

(snip)
Still, I wonder if Gov. Rick Perry's handling of a Corsicana man's case will become fodder for challengers rating him a failed leader.

The explosive message: Perry's judgment is so weak he didn't stop the killing of a man who experts say didn't murder his children.

Then again, there's a safe alternative. Candidates mindful that voters reward tough-on-crime messages could skirt the topic, leaving untouched the arguably wrongful state killing of Cameron Todd Willingham on Feb. 17, 2004.

I hope it will become a campaign issue. And not just against Perry but against this barbaric practice of state execution in a state where the criminal justice system is so horribly bad.

Sonia