Bush and Clemency

“I don’t believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own”

— George W. Bush, on why he refused to issue pardons or commutations for the 152 people be executed in Texas.

“I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive.”

— George W. Bush, yesterday. The fact that death may have been excessive never once crossed his mind. And then there’s this:

‘Please,'” Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, “‘don’t kill me.'”

— George W. Bush, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, on convicted death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker’s appeal for clemency.