When Bill Clinton flew home from NH to oversee the execution of a 'mentally retarded' man

[Cheese Sandwich]

1992. Trying to be all tough on crime. Those were the days huh. We don't need voting advice from Bill Clinton.

In 2002 the Supreme Court decided executing the mentally ill is unconstitutional, cruel and unusual punishment. Yeah like we couldn't have figured that out.

Bill wanted to look tough for politics though. So yeah some nobody had to die.

So now Bill is the top surrogate, top attack dog, for Hillary. He he doesn't have any moral authority to tell anybody who to vote for. He should hang up that lumberjack shirt and call it a night.

[roguevalley]

1. I remember that. Its rather sociopathic to do that even when its so egregious and cowardly.

[Cheese Sandwich]

2. I trusted Bill Clinton for some reason back then. No more.

It's clear now the Clintons will do and say anything to get elected.

[farleftlib]

3. Ricky Ray Rector

I'll never forget that. It was so hard for me to reconcile at the time because I thought Clinton was a good Dem. I woke up tho.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Ricky Ray Rector.

A 1991 request for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court was denied, with Marshall dissenting.[2]

Despite Rector's mental state, then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton made a point of returning to Arkansas to oversee Rector's January 24, 1992 execution during the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign.

(snip)

Rector was subject to a unique overlap of controversies in 1992 during his execution in Arkansas. An oft-cited example of his mental insufficiency is his decision to save the dessert from his last meal for after his execution.[7] In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of people with mental retardation in Atkins v. Virginia, ruling that the practice constitutes cruel and unusual punishment; however, it is not clear that this would have applied to Rector because his brain damage was caused by his suicide attempt after having committed the two murders (for which he was executed).

Role in 1992 presidential campaign

By 1992, Bill Clinton was insisting that Democrats "should no longer feel guilty about protecting the innocent" and voiced strong support of capital punishment. To make his point, he flew home to Arkansas mid-campaign to affirm that the execution would continue as scheduled. Some pundits considered it a turning point in that race, hardening a soft public image. Others tend to cite the execution as an example of what they perceive to be Clinton's opportunism, directly influenced by Michael Dukakis and his response to CNN's Bernard Shaw when asked during a campaign debate on October 13, 1988, if he would support the death penalty if Dukakis' wife Kitty were raped and murdered. Dukakis responded that he would not.

Bill Clinton's critics from the anti-capital punishment sector have seen the case of Rector as an unpleasant example of what they view as Clinton's cynical careerism. The writer Christopher Hitchens, in particular, devotes much of a chapter of his book on Clinton, No One Left to Lie To, for what he regards as the immorality of the then Democratic candidate's decision to condone, and take political advantage of, Rector's execution.[8] Hitchens argues that among other actions, Clinton was attempting to avoid focus on the ongoing Gennifer Flowers sex scandal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Ray_Rector

[Snotcicles]

5. Two days after that he and Hillary were on 60 Minutes doing the Gennifer Flowers interview.

That too was a Super Bowl Sunday.

[farleftlib]

6. Maybe the first in a long line of lives sacrificed

on the altar of the Clintons' ambitions.

[SwampG8r]

7. Was he the one who saved his last meal pie

So he could eat it later?
Not a joke i heard this at the time.

[farleftlib]

8. That's him

He saved his pie for "after" the execution.

The competency test is supposed to hinge on the prisoner's awareness of what is about to happen to him/her. And yet he passed the test. I think it was also a botched execution too. I oppose the DP until any/all circumstances but this one was extra sickening.

[Punkingal]

15. I remember being so sad when I heard about the pie.

[Odin2005]

9. This makes me physically sick.

[Cheese Sandwich]

10. agreed this is a horrible thing

[snagglepuss]

11. Even though I have never trusted him, it's easy to forget all the

instances of his opportunism. His going home just effing distraction from Flower's accusations and a "good" photo op.. Horrible horrible man.

[Cheese Sandwich]

13. Yeah. I was really into the Clinton thing back then.

[TheBlackAdder]

12. That's disheartening.

[John Poet]

14. What an act of political courage that was.

Oops, I meant to say bloody political expedience.

[AzDar]

16. The Clintons are despicable.

EOM

[pinebox]

17. He's fair game now

and it is going to get damn dirty now that he is.