Gonzales and the death penalty

The discussion over this morning's post and Tony's post on Virginia and the Death Penalty reminded me of an Atlantic magazine article from 2003 about Al Gonzales (remember, he worked for Bush in Texas) and his role in Bush's staunch support for the death penalty.

The Texas Clemency Memos reveal that Gonzales essentially cooked the books to allow Bush to claim that there was no reason to consider clemency.

"A close examination of the Gonzales memoranda suggests that Governor Bush frequently approved executions based on only the most cursory briefings on the issues in dispute. In fact, in these documents Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence."

What disgusts me about this is that it is a good way to get the Red State voters to flock to your side. Clinton did it in 92 and I was sickened then.