Governor Rick Perry of Texas Is An Idiot. (DP Thread)

[SlowwHand]

I'm solidly against Rick Perry already. This is something that I can't believe that he did today. Feel free to make all the belittling remarks that you want, because, they've been earned.
5-2 and he turned his head.

Texas inmate executed after Perry rejects clemency

by ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted on November 19, 2009 at 9:04 PM

Updated today at 9:10 PM

Texas inmate Robert Lee Thompson was executed Thursday evening for his part in a fatal Houston store holdup after Gov. Rick Perry rejected a parole board's recommendation to spare Thompson because he wasn't the gunman.

Thompson, 34, was an accomplice to trigger man Sammy Butler when 29-year-old store clerk Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed was gunned down 13 years ago. Butler received life in prison. A jury gave Thompson death.

Thompson's lawyer told the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles Thompson's punishment wasn't fair and the panel voted 5-2 Wednesday to recommend his sentence be commuted to life.

Perry didn't have to follow their rare recommendation and the execution was carried out about 45 minutes after his decision.

Thompson, in brief comments from the death chamber gurney, invoked Allah as his God, thanked friends and his mother for their love and support and urged his mother, who sobbed as she watched through a window: "Smile, be happy, don't cry."

He said he had not meant any harm to his victims' families, none of whom was present.

"I know Allah will forgive me," he said. "Allah is the forgiver."

His mother cried uncontrollably, stomped her feet and finally demanded to be taken from the witness area before her son was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m., nine minutes after he was injected with the lethal drugs.

Thompson was the 23rd inmate executed this year in Texas and the second this week.

Earlier Thursday, Thompson also lost an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the punishment.

The parole board's 5-2 vote came in response to a petition from Patrick McCann, Thompson's attorney, who argued the case was similar to that of Kenneth Foster, who also was convicted and sentenced to die under the Texas law of parties. Under that law, offenders conspiring to commit one felony like robbery can all be held responsible for another ensuing crime, such as murder.

"After reviewing all of the facts in the case of Robert Lee Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the
killing of Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, I have decided to uphold the jury's capital murder conviction and capital punishment for this heinous crime," Perry said in a statement. "There is no reason to set aside the capital murder conviction handed down by a Texas jury and upheld by numerous state and federal courts."

Perry commuted Foster's sentence to life two years ago. Foster became only the second inmate since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982 who won a recommendation from the parole board as his execution loomed.

In the first case, in 2004, Perry rejected the board's recommendation and mentally ill prisoner Kelsey Patterson was executed.

Perry's explanation for commuting Foster's sentence was that Foster and his co-defendant were tried together on capital murder charges for a slaying in San Antonio. In Thompson's case, he and Butler were tried separately.

At least half a dozen other Texas inmates have been executed under the law of parties.

The U.S. Supreme Court since 1982 has barred the death penalty for co-conspirators who don't themselves kill. The justices made an exception in 1987, however, ruling that the Eighth Amendment didn't prohibit the execution of someone who plays a major role in a felony that results in murder and whose mental state is one of reckless indifference.

McCann's appeal before the Supreme Court raised questions about the competence of Thompson's trial lawyers.

Evidence at his trial showed Thompson, who is black, told detectives he went on a two-month crime spree in 1996 because God told him to do something about Middle Eastern and Asian store clerks who discriminated against blacks.

The killing was one of three he acknowledged to authorities. In two of the slayings, Thompson told detectives he was the gunman.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Thompson said he wasn't against punishment for crime.

"That's the foundation of our system," he said. "But I am against the unfairness of the system, the way it picks and chooses."

Thompson was 21 at the time of Mohammed's shooting. Another clerk at the same store was shot four times by Thompson but survived.

"I wasn't thinking of this being wrong. It was more: You're not doing us right," he said of the store clerks. "They rob us. They watch us like crazy. We're all victims."

Asked if he'd ever killed someone, he replied: "No one died in front of me. I've shot at people. Different things happen."

Evidence showed he and Butler were responsible for at least eight other convenience store robberies, three of them resulting in deaths.

Thompson blamed the spree on the recklessness of youth.

"It was impulsive ... nothing planned," he said. "Just -- Bam!"

[notyoueither]

He seems as good a candidate for the needle as anyone else on death row in various US states.

[Lord Avalon]

Don't tell me Sloww's becoming soft on crime.

[Ming]

Thompson, 34, was an accomplice to trigger man Sammy Butler when 29-year-old store clerk Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed was gunned down 13 years ago. Butler received life in prison. A jury gave Thompson death.

So let me get this straight... the guy who actually pulled the trigger got life, but the accomplice got death. WTF

While I won't argue whether he deserves the DP, why the hell didn't the trigger man get the same?

[SlowwHand]

That alone calls for transference to life.
An execution doesn't generally happen on one person's whim. This one did.

[notyoueither]

So let me get this straight... the guy who actually pulled the trigger got life, but the accomplice got death. WTF

While I won't argue whether he deserves the DP, why the hell didn't the trigger man get the same?

The article says seperate trials.

It also notes that he did his best to kill another person in that incident.

[notyoueither]

That alone calls for transference to life.
An execution doesn't generally happen on one person's whim. This one did.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Governor takes into account facts not related to the single conviction, yes?

[SlowwHand]

I'm actually not sure. If he does, I would think that the parole board would, too.

[Ming]

The article says seperate trials.

It also notes that he did his best to kill another person in that incident.

Yeah... I read that. I also read how he spoke to the detectives about other killings (but it doesn't say that he was convicted of those, or that he was found guilty on them)

But still, the guy that actually kills somebody gets life, and the one that doesn't gets death? Strange state

[notyoueither]

I'm actually not sure. If he does, I would think that the parole board would, too.

He'd be pretty close to meeting my personal standard for when the DP is warranted.

Guilty without a doubt. Multiple violent crimes resulting in deaths. Shows all the remorse of a diseased turnip.

As he says... just bam. Could hardly deserve it more.

[-Jrabbit]

This was basically legalized vigilantism. Perry was not elected judge. He should be made to push the button (or whatever) himself on these executions, and on camera.

Because he killed this man personally -- even though he didn't pull the trigger.

[notyoueither]

Hogwash.

He declined to grant clemency to a human stain.

[Oerdin]

You said he was from Texas so we already knew he was an idiot.

[a.kitman]

what i dont understand is why the governor is even involved in these kind of things. isnt it better to have the parol board descide these as they are the supposed experts?

[SlowwHand]

One would think a governor woold make a decision based on advice from those paid to do a job.

[Solomwi]

That alone calls for transference to life.
An execution doesn't generally happen on one person's whim. This one did.

No and no.

[Kuciwalker]

This was basically legalized vigilantism. Perry was not elected judge. He should be made to push the button (or whatever) himself on these executions, and on camera.

Because he killed this man personally -- even though he didn't pull the trigger.

This doesn't make sense. He was elected judge, under your incredibly broad use of the term.

[SlowwHand]

No and no.

Yes and yes, unless you care to explain your brilliant revelations.

[Solomwi]

This doesn't make sense. He was elected judge, under your incredibly broad use of the term.

Not to mention that someone who was either elected or appointed judge under even the narrowest use of the term had already sentenced the guy to death. All Perry did was pass up the chance to reverse that judge.

[a.kitman]

well even then it doesnt make much sense to have the governor have greater authority. you would also expect a governor to act in way to get him re elected. and my concern is that would make individual executions a policial issue and open to public abuse in both directions.

[Solomwi]

Yes and yes, unless you care to explain your brilliant revelations.

You're the one who made the assertions, and thus bears the burden, but since I don't want your impending cardiac death on my hands, I'll oblige this once.

First, there's no reason to believe Butler's sentence should act as a cap on Thompson's. Each was tried by a jury under the same rules, and there's no indication of anything being amiss in either trial. Different juries are allowed to reach different conclusions, especially when they're ignorant of what the other is doing, as the system strives to achieve.

Second, you're ignoring the roles of plenty of people when you say it happened on Perry's whim. The prosecutor, judge and jury all played their parts in making this execution happen at trial. From Perry's statement, Thompson made use of the appeals process, and at every stage, the appellate courts let the sentence stand. In short, that it came down to Perry's decision doesn't mean it wasn't the result of a lot of consideration and action on the part of many different people. Perry could stop the execution on a whim, but it takes all of those people coming to the same result to make the execution go forward.

[Solomwi]

well even then it doesnt make much sense to have the governor have greater authority. you would also expect a governor to act in way to get him re elected. and my concern is that would make individual executions a policial issue and open to public abuse in both directions.

This is Texas we're talking about. On average, coming down on the side of executing killers is the way to get re-elected.

[-Jrabbit]

I've no doubt that he was a repugnant excuse for a human being, and it's pretty clear that he did plenty of evil in his pathetic excuse for a life. But in terms of the actual court case, it appears this guy's biggest issue was not having a better lawyer. The fact remains: he got a death sentence for a killing he did not personally commit.

[Solomwi]

Personally committing the murder isn't the bar for the death penalty in this case, though. If your position is that the death penalty wasn't morally appropriate, that's fine, but your qualm is with the laws of Texas and the U.S., at least as much as with Perry.

[SlowwHand]

Bullshit. You keep saying things that are your personal opinion, but aren't true.

Yes, Texas supports the death penalty, but that doesn't mean Perry is right in viewing himself as god-like.
This has nothing to do with support of the death penalty in general terms.
It's a particular case. See if you can wrap your mind around the fact.

[Solomwi]

Bullshit. You keep saying things that are your personal opinion, but aren't true.

Yes, Texas supports the death penalty, but that doesn't mean Perry is right in viewing himself as god-like.
This has nothing to do with support of the death penalty in general terms.
It's a particular case. See if you can wrap your mind around the fact.

WTF are you talking about?

It's my personal opinion that he was sentenced to death only after trial by jury? It's my personal opinion that the state appellate courts and U.S. Supreme Court let his death sentence stand? That the criminal justice system strives to have a jury that's ignorant of the case going in? That Thompson's jury was not bound by the findings of Butler's? That the death sentence had to pass through many hands intact in order to even get to Perry in the first place? Those are opinions?

And my response to Jrabbit was in terms of this particular case. Thompson was found to meet the standard for the death penalty, which, by law, does not require personally committing the murder. Texas law allows the death penalty in this case. The Constitution does not prohibit it. If you have a problem with Thompson's execution on moral grounds, you have a problem with the laws of Texas and the U.S.

If you're *****ing about my little joke to a.kitman, remember that you asked for it in the OP.

Feel free to make all the belittling remarks that you want, because, they've been earned.

[-Jrabbit]

Personally committing the murder isn't the bar for the death penalty in this case, though. If your position is that the death penalty wasn't morally appropriate, that's fine, but your qualm is with the laws of Texas and the U.S., at least as much as with Perry.

True dat.

[SlowwHand]

Personally committing the murder isn't the bar for the death penalty in this case, though. If your position is that the death penalty wasn't morally appropriate, that's fine, but your qualm is with the laws of Texas and the U.S., at least as much as with Perry.

This, is bullshit. Keep up.
It has nothing to do with the laws of Texas. I'm fine with the laws. Perry, I have a problem with.
You cite the OP. The OP was clear in that this is about Perry being a dickhead.

[-Jrabbit]

He was talking to me. And his assessment of my POV was correct.

[SlowwHand]

oops.