Bush missed his status....

Until Now Bush signed the military's request to execute a soldier.


It must have been hell for George “Executioner” Bush to wait seven-
and-a-half years to put the presidential seal of approval on the 
death of a member of the military.

Yesterday, Bush’s blood-lust and penchant for kill, kill, kill was 
revived when he sentenced Army Pvt. Ronald A. Gray to death for a 
murder and rape spree over an eight-month period in the 1980s in 
Fayetteville, N.C., while stationed at Fort Bragg.

It’s been more than 50 years since a president has signed orders to 
execute a member of the military.

The last president-approved execution was in 1957, when Dwight D. 
Eisenhower signed orders to hang Army Pvt. John Bennett for rape and 
attempted murder of an 11-year-old Australian girl.

Conversely, in 1962, John F. Kennedy was the last president to 
commute the death sentence of Navy Seaman Jimmie Henderson to a life 
sentence.

According to the Associate Press: Gray pled guilty to two murders of 
the four murders and five of eight rapes in North Carolina civil 
court, and was sentenced to three consecutive and five concurrent 
life terms.
He then was tried by general court-martial at the Army's Fort Bragg. 
In April 1988, the court-martial convicted Gray of two murders, an 
attempted murder and three rapes. He was unanimously sentenced to death.
According to Dana Perino, White House spokes-spinner: While approving 
a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious 
and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president 
believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is 
just and warranted.

Texas law aside, knowing Bush’s penchant as governor of Texas for 
never having met a death sentence he didn't love, it’s a stretch to 
believe that Bush made his decision either with difficulty or took it 
seriously.

Neither Bush’s stamp-of-death approval, nor the Supreme Court’s 
refusal to hear the case will stop Gray’s litigation of his case, 
which could buy him another 20 years on death row.

This is neither a pro or con death penalty piece, but in view of the 
fact that prisoners who are sentenced to death live for years on 
death row while pursuing legal challenges to their sentences, it’s a 
pretty sure thing that as the only democracy in the Western world 
that still executes the death penalty, we could live quite well with 
life in prison with no possibility of parole sentences.