In an LA Times news report by David Savage we learn that

the “U.S. Supreme Court stopped Texas officials Thursday evening from executing a Houston murderer who was sentenced to die after jurors were told he posed a greater danger to public safety because he is black.”

The justices acted on an emergency appeal after Texas Gov. Rick Perry and state judges refused to intervene.

Buck, a 48-year-old auto mechanic, was sentenced to die for the fatal 1995 shootings of an ex-girlfriend and a man. His attorneys did not dispute his guilt but argued that prosecutors should not have used his race to argue for a death sentence.

The sentencing dispute arose because of an unusual provision in Texas’ death penalty law. Jurors were required to consider whether a convicted murderer would pose a future danger if he were sentenced to life in prison rather than death. In a series of cases, Dr. Walter Quijano, a psychologist, testified that blacks posed a greater risk of “future dangerousness” than whites. SOURCE

That ought to be clear to most people as these photos released by the governor’s office  of Buck and white serial killer Jeffery Dahmer show

“Our justice system may have gaps and flaws in it, Perry said,  and innocent people have been wrongly convicted and executed but I’ll not waste the tax payer’s money and give wrongly accused and sentenced people another trial.  If I did that we’d have to lay off more teachers.  Besides, I have a new governor’s mansion to build so my people will have a worthy place to worship visit me.

The Governor insists that his decision to ignore the Buck case and most of the 235 death penalty cases that preceded this one came from a higher power.  Channeling the memory of Richard Nixon who in February 1973 said when being accused of orchestrating the Watergate break in that “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal”, Perry told reporters that “when I do anything that means it comes from the ultimate authority.”

This reference is linked to the ties Perry has with fundamentalist Christians in Texas  and his attempts to pursue God through prayer to end years of serious drought in the state.  The prayer fest held in April this year not only failed to produce significant quantities of rain but was followed by  the warmest, driest summer ever experienced by any state in American history.

It was perhaps this obvious failure of Perry’s that restrained him from sending the Texas Rangers to arrest those Supreme Court judges who stayed the execution of Duane Buck just hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection.  According to the LA Times story “Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, was campaigning in Iowa on Thursday, leaving Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to preside over the execution. After the stay was issued, Dewhurst’s office said he would have no comment. A Perry spokeswoman in Austin said, “This is a matter before the courts.”

But unidentified sources said Perry was seething and already had started drawing up plans to stack the court once he was elected President-for-life

Posted by lbwoodgate in Humor, Satire, Social Discourse, Texas/Local stories Tags: Capital punishment, David Dewhurst, God and Perry, Richard Nixon, Rick Perry, Rick Perry satire, Supreme Court of the United States, Texas, Texas and the death penalty