Lotsa blood on those manicured hands

Jordan Smith
June 3rd, 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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