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Presidential hopeful and Christian evangelist Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) just oversaw his 235th execution, the most of any governor by far. So many Texas citizens (and non-citizens) have been killed by the state under Gov. Perry that nearly half of all executions in Texas since the death penalty went into effect in 1976 have been under Gov. Perry’s watch.
Gov. Perry has shown he fully embraces capital punishment, even allowing an execution while aware that scientific investigations called into question the validity of the evidence used to convict.
Former President George W. Bush was the previous recordholder for most executions, with 152.
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Not that I’m defending Bush and Perry’s reluctance to use their clemency powers as governor but Texas is the most populous state with the death penalty. The actual number count is going to be higher than other states.
Still we have seen that too many people sentenced to death in this state only to to discover they were innocent at the 11th hour with DNA testing or, sadly, after they were already executed.
Perry’s an old testament christian where the “eye for an eye” belief is still popular. He’s not shown much inclination to incorporate the new testament’s mercy in his decisions about the death sentence.
Thanks for commenting! I agree with you.
As for the population issue, you’re right that Texas would have a higher number of executions due to its higher population. However, the number of people Texas has executed is far out of line with the numbers from the other states.
Since the death penalty was reestablished in the United States in 1976, there have been 1,265 executions across the country; 473 of them were in Texas. Texas has less than 8% of the country’s population but conducts nearly 38% of the executions.
I would highly recommend that anyone who is interested check out deathpeanltyinfo.org. It’s incredibly informative. (Also, the statistics above are from the page http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/number-executions-state-and-region-1976).
Thanks again!
Ibwoodgate, there is no such thing as an old testament christian. With Christ came the new testament. The new testament negates the old testament. “Eye for an eye” was replaced with “turn the other cheek” To be a Christian is to follow the latter not the former. Rick Perry, Bush and millions of others in this Country and around the world are really pre-christians – they are two thousand years behind the times. It is not for them to pick and choose between old and new. They have no business calling themselves Christians when they do not follow Jesus’ teachings. best to you and yours.
You haven’t said so, but what you mean is they are practicing Judaism rather than Christianity. They are following the religion of the Jews of Israel that they apparently love so much. Right?
Thank you for this. It helped me more than you can imagine. i’m so turned off by “Christians”, because the loudest are those like Rick Perry. I go to Church weekly, pray daily, and generally feel a communion with all earth’s people, usually vote demoncrat with an inclination toward socialism. Yet, I will not refer to myself as Christian because of embarrassment. I don’t want others to think I believe in execution, gulf wars, the evil of Islam, taxes (especially of the rich). I like your term “pre-Christian”.
Giving the state the power to execute, assassinate and torture is giving the state far too much power. Hey, Citizen, rein in this monster!
Just a small correction. California has the death penalty and much higher population than Texas, by around 13 million. And we have only executed 13 people since 1976.
Thanks for the correction! You’re right, and your point is an important one.
Sick piece of crap.
It’s Perry who should be executed.
Psychos one and all we are ruled by megalomaniacs.
One word: psychopath. One response: Perry in the hole for eternity.
My Net-friend Gideon Polya PhD of Melbourne, Australia, has given us the numbers for the quantity of victims murdered by the USGov in the last two decades alone in the ODC’s or “Occupied & Destroyed Countries”. Total =~ 12,000,000 [twelve million] by both direct military action & resulting from systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure.
The misruling clique of WAR aka the WAshington Regime, including Rick Perry are by far the worst gang of criminals on Earth. According to their own notorious practice, they deserve to be tortured to death and also to have their kith & kin indiscriminately bombed to smithereens. I daresay that we who are emerging to enforce that law which serves justice only will, however, disdain to follow their loathsome example and will instead simply slam’em down forever. AFTOC [= "After a Fair Trial, Of Course"]. IMHO our revolutionary movement in the US should aim for the demographic complexion of our present prison pop. Do you believe that the future be long, that space be deep and that the human spirit shall finally prevail against murder, looting & lies? Will we join together to beat the killer drones? General Vo Nguyen Giap of victorious Vietnam has now reached the age of 101 years, take heart!
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It is interesting to me how many of us can resort to the same kind of Old Testament thinking and intolerance when faced with someone we hate. The god of mercy and grace that was manifest to humanity in the person of Jesus Christ meant for mercy and grace to be extended to all; including Barabbas (in this case Mr. Perry).
What this means, in my opinion, is that we should work to keep him out of the White House (and if you live in Texas, to get him out of the Gov’s mansion), change the law concerning the death penalty, and show Mr. Perry the real meaning of “the grace of God.”
Just sayin’,
ed
Great review! You actually overviewed some great things here. I came across it by using Bing and I’ve got to admit that I already subscribed to the RSS feed, will be following you on my iphone
Thanks Ed; you have a really good handle on what Christianity should be all about. I hope good Texas people will realize that to do nothing in the face of evil is to enable it.
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Maybe I will continue the discussion on these issues but first will Ed Burley please be so kind to whether he intended the first sentence of his remark, immediately following mine, to refer to my post, among others?
Secondly, ’twas the famous Website linked below that first turned me on to this “One Blue Stocking” blog in the first place, so it seems apt to point out Alexander Cockburn’s informative piece on Rick Perry.
http://www.counterpunch.org/ August 19 – 21, 2011
CounterPunch Diary: Rick Perry: One Lucky Son-of-a-Bitch
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN Weekend Edition
Let’s get one thing straight from the start. Rick Perry is no blow-dry George Bush clone, even though he owes his political career about 50/50 to Bush and Osama bin Laden. [snip]
IMHO Mr. Cockburn has very serious defects, such as shilling creepily
& persistently for the Official Myths on the JFK hit and on the 9/11 Stunt. Even so, he does collect on his Site several writers of merit. The NATION magazine, the oldest magazine in the nation BTW = the leftward most traditional publication of WAR aka the WAshington Regime and AC = the NATION’s leftwardmost columnist. In order to keep occupying that crucial cultural position, AC perforce must offer to his readers a better ratio of truth to lies than do his colleagues to the right all the way over to Tom Friedman, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh et al.
No Hal, I wasn’t replying to anything you said. It just seems to me that many in the Christian Left (of which I am numbered) have become as intolerant of the Christian Right as they claim the Right to be. I think that we all need to take a chill pill at times…including me. I am in no way sinless in this regard when speaking to others about matters of faith and politics.
I did read Cockburn’s article, and was surprised at how friendly he was to Perry. Alas, it won’t sway me. About the only thing that could get me to vote for Perry is if he swore to God that, if elected president, he’d BAN the Fed, arrest the members of the Fed Board, and the CEOs and top officials of AIG, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Chase. He’d have to swear to God – that way either he does it OR God will send him to whatever kind of hell he has prepared for politicians. LOL (I don’t believe in hell…that’s why I am laughing).
BTW, I actually liked and agreed with most of what you’ve written here (both posts).
blessings,
ed
Your site doesn’t display properly on my i phone – you may want to try and repair that
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