Gov. Hang 'Em High?
Perry reaches a killing milestone
By Jordan Smith, 8:19AM, Wed. Jun. 3, 2009
Gov. Rick Perry reached a milestone last night: Under his leadership, 200 people have been executed in Texas – more executions than have proceeded under any other governor in U.S. history, reports the Texas Moratorium Network. In all, the state has executed 438 people since 1982, including 152 under former Gov. George W. Bush.
On June 2 the state put to death Terry Hankins, who was convicted and sentenced to die for the 2001 murders of his wife and two step children, 12 and 10. After his arrest, Hankins confessed to killing his father and 20-year-old sister a year before.
Since 2001, 40 people nationwide, including two in Texas, have been exonerated from death row. Meanwhile, 40 men have now been exonerated from Texas prisons based on DNA evidence of actual innocence – including the most recent exoneree, Jerry Lee Evans, who is also the 20th exoneree from Dallas County. Like the vast majority of Texas' other exonerated men, Evans' wrongful conviction was due in large part to a faulty eyewitness identification.
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Jordan Smith, Oct. 4, 2013
Jordan Smith, Aug. 9, 2013
May 22, 2014
Crime, Legislature, 81st Legislature, Courts, death penalty, Rick Perry, wrongful convictions, Jerry Lee Evans
