Perry Uses Clemency Sparingly On Death Row

[Joy]

Perry uses clemency sparingly on death row
Governor has never called off an execution on a claim of innocence
By LISE OLSEN
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

In nearly nine years as Texas governor, Rick Perry has never spared a life based on a claim of innocence and only once delayed an execution in such a case, according to a Chronicle review of public records, clemency statistics and information from the governor's office.

During that same period, officials in other death penalty states granted clemency for humanitarian reasons at least 200 times — 171 based on questions of innocence in Illinois alone.

Texas has executed 200 convicts under Perry's watch, but he has spared just one condemned man's life in a case in which he was not compelled to do so by the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, the inmate Perry saved in 2007 was not a killer but the admitted driver of a getaway car, condemned alongside the triggerman in a joint trial under Texas' tough “law of parties.” continued...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/6673053.html