Katrina vanden Heuvel: Texas's Commuter-in-Chief (The Nation)

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BLOG | Posted 07/10/2007 @ 12:00pm
Texas's Commuter-in-Chief


Back in the days when Governor George Bush was only able to screw-up Texas instead of an entire nation, 57 lawyers representing men – and a woman – on death row requested commutations so that their clients might receive life instead of death.

When approached by lawyers representing mentally retarded inmates, Bush refused.

When approached by lawyers representing inmates whose court-appointed lawyers had slept during their trials, Bush refused.

When approached by lawyers representing men who had committed the crime in question as juveniles, Bush refused.

In each case, then-Governor Bush felt that the defendants had had full and equal access to the law.

But now along comes Scooter. President Bush deemed his 30-month sentence "excessive" and – just like that – commuted his sentence prior to any judicial review. Libby had the finest legal representation. He never expressed any remorse for lying to a grand jury or for his role in the administration's snow job on the American people that led our nation into a war. Yet Scooter is the lucky soul granted clemency by Bush.

In an article for the once-hyped but now defunct magazine, Talk, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson interviewed then-Gov. Bush about Karla Faye Tucker, a woman who had recently been executed after he denied her clemency. Bush's response struck Carlson as "odd and cruel" and he described this exchange: ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=212394