[Gov. Rick] Perry said it was a difficult decision given Patterson's mental history, but he noted that numerous courts have reviewed the case and not found a legal reason to bar his execution. He made no mention of the rare recommendation by the board or why he chose to disagree with it.
Our shell of a governor, who appears to have no identifiable intellectual identity beyond the shadow of George W. Bush and who may, in fact, be nothing more than a life support system for a head of hair, continues George W. Bush's practice of misrepresenting the role of the chief executive in the clemency process.
Governors Bush and Goodhair have consistently represented their role as simply being an assurer of due judicial process. The governor's job is not to determine whether the courts have followed due process in considering the merits of the case and its appeals; that is, unsurprisingly to any other student of American jurisprudence, the role of the appellate courts.
The role of the chief executive and his clemency delegates (the Board of Pardons and Paroles) is to measure whether extrajudicial facts and sensibilities outside of the judicial process merit special consideration of a reduction in punishment.
Being as crazy as a bedbug--which must necessarily mean reduced criminal culpability--would seem to me to well exceed the limit at which clemency should be offered.
Governor Perry's abuse of the clemency system may well rise to the level of an impeachable offense. [This is disingenuous--an impeachable offense is "any action the legislature disapproves of"--but still.] His official misfeasance is made particularly clear when the lickspittle, hang-'em-high Board of Pardons and Paroles found the backbone to recommend clemency for Patterson.
Regardless, the execution of Kelsey Patterson simply reiterates my conviction that the criminal justice system in Texas is broken and violative of substantive due process, and its apologists are criminals and fools.
UPDATE: Ginger and I have similar but non-identical reactions.