On Friday morning, Kenneth Lee Boyd was executed in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was the 1000th person to be executed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. This would seem an appropriate milestone to reexamine and reconsider our fanaticism with the death penalty in this country. Among developed democracies, only the U.S., Japan and South Korea still perform executions. Last year, 59 people were put to death in the U.S.; only China, Iran, and Vietnam executed more people.

In California, protestors plead with Gov. Shwartzenegger to grant clemency to death row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams, founder of the Crips gang and convicted murder turned anti-gang and anti-violence activist. Williams has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize each year since 2001. In 2004, he helped create a landmark agreement, called the Tookie Protocol for Peace, that established a truce between the Crips and the Bloods, two of the most notorious gangs in the country. For this, he recieved a letter of commendation for social activism from none other than President George W. Bush.

Given that Bush had somewhat of a reputation during his tenure as governor of Texas for being "execution happy," with Texas executing 131 prisoners during his term, far more than any other state, let's take a moment to examine his record on the subject. From the New York Times, June 17th 2000:

...In answer to questions about that record, Governor Bush has repeatedly said that he has no qualms. "I'm confident," he said last February, "that every person that has been put to death in Texas under my watch has been guilty of the crime charged, and has had full access to the courts."

That defense of the record ignores many notorious examples of unfairness in Texas death penalty cases. Lawyers have been under the influence of cocaine during the trial, or been drunk or asleep. One court dismissed a complaint about a lawyer who slept through a trial with the comment that courts are not "obligated to either constantly monitor trial counsel's wakefulness or endeavor to wake counsel should he fall asleep."

In one-third of [the] cases...the lawyer who represented the death penalty defendant at trial or on appeal had been or was later disbarred or otherwise sanctioned. In 40 cases the lawyers presented no evidence at all or only one witness at the sentencing phase of the trial.

Not a very reassuring record. But in order to fully comprehend the president's apathy towards human life, let's hear it from the man himself; I present you with a long forgotten incident, revived this week by Slate.com. The following exchange was reported during the 2000 presidential campaign by Tucker Carlson, no enemy of the right, and published in the National Review:

In the week before [Karla Faye Tucker's] execution, Bush says, Bianca Jagger and a number of other protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Tucker. "Did you meet with any of them?" I ask.

Bush whips around and stares at me. "No, I didn't meet with any of them," he snaps, as though I've just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. "I didn't meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with [Tucker], though. He asked her real difficult questions, like 'What would you say to Governor Bush?' "

"What was her answer?" I wonder.

"Please," Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "don't kill me."