Last week Governor Rick Perry helped keep the Lone Star State at #1 in executions when 41-year-old Donnie Roberts was killed by the lethal injection by the state. It’s the 250th execution since he took office in January 2001. In those dozen years, Texas has executed twice as many people as any other state has over the last 35 years, and twice as many as it did in the 24 years prior to Perry’s term. Our state has also executed some 37 percent of all prisoners since the death penalty was restored in 1976. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s scheduled executions webpage, 33-year-old Mario Swain is slated for execution this week on Thursday (11/8) and two more convicts are scheduled for next week.
In his 2010 book, “Fed Up!” Perry writes: "If you don't support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol, don't come to Texas." Perry said at the Republican presidential candidates' debate in September last year that he had "never struggled [to sleep at night] at all" with the idea that someone executed under his watch might have been innocent.
