http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/rick-perry-death-penalty-duane-buckRick Perry's Big Death Penalty Decision
—By Tim Murphy
| Fri Sep. 2, 2011 3:00 AM PDT
A Texas inmate sentenced to death—in a racially charged case that now-Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said was inappropriately decided—has petitioned Governor Rick Perry and his state parole board for clemency, giving the GOP presidential candidate two weeks to decide whether to commute the sentence or grant a temporary stay of execution. In ten years as governor, Perry has presided over 235 executions, more than any other governor in modern history; only once has he granted clemency in a case where the Supreme Court hasn't already mandated it. Now, just as steps onto the national stage, he to have to confront what looks like a tough call—with GOP primary voters watching.
The inmate, Duane Edward Buck, is set to be executed by lethal injection on September 15 for murdering two people at the home of his ex-girlfriend in 1995. The issue at hand isn't Buck's innocence, but the means by which his death sentence was obtained. Prosecutors firmly established Buck's guilt, but to secure a capital punishment conviction in Texas they needed to prove "future dangerousness"—that is, provide compelling evidence that Buck posed a serious threat to society if he were ever to walk free. They did so in part with the testimony of a psychologist, Dr. Walter Quijano, who testified that Buck's race (he's African-American) made him more likely to commit crimes in the future. (Quijano answered in the affirmative to the question of whether "the race factor,
black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons.")