Friday, September 16, 2011

Update: Perry's death party delayed

Last night the US Supreme Court put a halt to the State of Texas' attempt to murder Duane Buck. The issue is whether the punishment phase of Mr. Buck's trial was tainted by testimony from the state's expert witness, Dr. Walter Quijano, that a black man was more likely to be a future threat than a white man.

Then Texas Attorney General John Cornyn (now a US Senator) urged that Mr. Buck and five other inmates sentenced to death receive new punishment trials as a result of Dr. Quijano's testimony. The other five men received new punishment trials and were all sentenced to die (again). For some reason, Mr. Buck was not afforded the same treatment.

Thursday afternoon, Judge Denise Collins (the original trial judge) rejected a request by the prosecutor who tried the case, Ms. Linda Geffen, to take whatever action she could to halt the scheduled murder.

Rick Perry, who's never come across an execution he didn't like, has repeatedly rejected requests to halt the execution. The fair-haired one is more concerned with scoring votes from white Republicans who support the state-sponsored murder of anyone who isn't white.

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