*'s watch as Governor: How many children and innocents did TX EXECUTE?

[AirAmFan]

A story about the recent 5-4 USSC decision barring executions of those under 18 led me to search for Dubya's record on executions as Governor of Texas. New AG Gonzales was Dubya's point man on investigations to dispose of requests for execution delays and commutations of death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. How thorough were these investigations, and how humane were the life-or-death decisions our 'Christian' President made?

Here's an excerpt from the best resource I could find:

From http://www2.bc.edu/~sydnor/1.html :

"How Many Innocent People Did He Execute? The Texas Death Penalty Under Governor George W. Bush

by Rev. Jon Paul Sydnor

CHAPTER ONE: HOW MANY JUVENILE OFFENDERS DID HE EXECUTE?

... , only five countries are known to have formally executed juvenile offenders: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and America.... In total, the United States of America executed nine juvenile offenders, more than any other country, and of those nine Texas executed five. And of those five juvenile offenders executed by the state of Texas, ***FOUR*** were executed by Governor George W. Bush.

Texas� treatment of juvenile murder defendants under Gov. Bush was also skewed racially. As of August 2000, of the 24 juvenile offenders on death row in Texas, 11 were black, 11 were Hispanic, and 2 were white�a lineup entirely disproportionate to the population of the state, as well as disproportionate to the race of convicted juvenile murderers in the state."

<snip>

From http://www2.bc.edu/~sydnor/8.s.html :

"Chapter Eight: Did He Execute Anyone Who Was Innocent?

After executions, evidence from capital cases is generally destroyed. Nevertheless, several cases suggest the high probability that George W. Bush, as Governor of Texas, committed the ultimate error in applying the ultimate punishment...."

Father Sydnor then summarizes the executions of ***TEN*** people in apparently obvious miscarriages of justice, all with flimsy or contradictory evidence, and most involving denial of defense requests for DNA tests that could have exonerated those who were put to death.

[rkc3]

1. I heard on NPR last night that 13 out of 22 executions of juveniles.

in Texas - this is likely to include people who committed murder as a juvenile and were executed as an adult.

[AirAmFan]

2. Oops! The DU software ate a crucial line of my lead-in, because I forgot

and put it in square brackets. I posted,

"(From 1990 to August 2000), ..., only five countries ..."

NPR's source apparently looked at a longer period of time than Father Sydnor did.

Counting tragic state executions of children gives different results depending on the period of time covered and the countries included. But any way you slice it, the State of Texas has a shameful record, and our Toxic Texan 'President' looks like a barbarian to virtually all of the rest of the world, from the poorest third-world nations to the European countries where child poverty is virtually unknown.

[rkc3]

3. I assumed they were looking at different time periods.

You are right, any way it's sliced, TX leads the way in killing people - regardless of age, race, religion, or mental faculty.

[AirAmFan]

4. But WHY does TX put to death so many more kids than other states,

and why does actual innocence not seem to be much of a guarantee against executions in Texas?

I suspect one factor must be that Texas is a state with one of the largest proportions of poor people, predominantly politically disfranchised minorities, who cannot afford adequate legal representation when their troubled children go to court. I suspect another factor may be higher levels of politicization of the courts in states like Texas, allowing reckless DAs to rabble-rouse at the expense of poor kids' lives. Are most criminal-court judges elected rather than appointed in Texas?

Appendixes to this week's USSC decision provide some support for this view. With a few execptions, states without the death penalty tend to be particularly racially homogeneous,and states that sanction the killing of kids tend to have large minority popoulations:

From the transcript of this week's USSC decision in Roper v. Simmons, at http://wid.ap.org/documents/scotus/050301roper.pdf:

"ROPER v. SIMMONS: Appendix A to opinion of the Court

III. STATES WITHOUT THE DEATH PENALTY Alaska Hawaii Iowa Maine Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota North Dakota Rhode Island Vermont West Virginia Wisconsin

II. STATES THAT RETAIN THE DEATH PENALTY, BUT SET THE MINIMUM AGE AT 18 California Colorado Connecticut Illinois Indiana Kansas Maryland Montana Nebraska New Jersey New Mexico New York Ohio Oregon South Dakota Tennessee Washington Wyoming

I. STATES THAT PERMIT THE IMPOSITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY ON JUVENILES Alabama Arizona Arkansas Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Nevada New Hampshire North Carolina Oklahoma Pennsylvania South Carolina Texas Utah Virginia"

(I found this link in a Yahoo story on the USSC decision, at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20050301/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_death_penalty .)