Why I believe in George Bush

It isn't often that a politician demonstrates strenght of conviction while in office. The pressures of being elected are too great. Even George Bush has succumbed to the pressures, imposing steel tarrifs, which he later rescinded, in order to placate a constituency. (I believe his promotion of a gay marriage amendment may be along similar lines. Although I'm certain he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, I'm equally certain he was fully aware that the amendment would never pass the Congress.)

As a Texan, I've had the opportunity to watch George Bush in action as my Governor. While in office, Bush took a great deal of heat for carrying out the punishments of convicted murderers, even though that was clearly the will of the people of Texas. Groups from all over the world would come and stand vigil outside the death chamber, carrying signs and candles and garnering a great deal of press coverage, to the consternation of the people of Texas and the pain of the victims' families.

There were two cases that were decided on George Bush's watch that, in my mind, clearly illustrate the kind of man he is.

The first was the murder conviction of Karla Faye Tucker. Karla Faye had murdered a couple using a pickaxe, striking them repeatedly until they finally stopped moving. She spoke with relish of the way the pickaxe heaved to and fro as the victims' lives faded away.

When Karla was sent to prison, she underwent a transformation. She became a born again Christian. Subsequently she garnered the support of some powerful people, including Pat Robertson. A tremendous amount of pressure was applied to the Governor's office to commute her sentence. After all, although she had killed in cold blood, she had clearly been changed. Furthermore, she was not asking to be released from prison but merely to have her sentence commuted to life so she could continue her evangelizing work in the prison.

Clearly Bush had to feel the pressure of his fellow Christians, begging him to keep alive a woman who represented, for many of them, the healing and transformative power of the Christian faith. The awful nature of her crime, which she fully admitted to, was subsumed in the passion of her conversion, her heartfelt apology and her clear regret, they said. Yet Bush stood firm against overwhelming pressure, and on February 3, 1998, Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman to be put to death in Texas since the Civil War.

The other case is Henry Lee Lucas. Unlike Karla, Henry is a serial killer who has confessed to hundreds of murders. (How many he actually committed is an open question, but it's certain that he killed several people, including his mother.) Unfortunately, Lucas waited decades to confess to his crimes, so investigators had a decided lack of evidence with which to convict Henry. As is often the case, they chose to offer Lucas life in prison in return for his confessions. So Henry sat in prison, a convicted serial killer, never having received the ultimate punishment for his crimes.

This stuck in the craw of some good ole Texas lawmen, so, when Lucas confessed to the murder of "Orange Socks", they demanded the death penalty and got it. (Orange Socks was the name of a case of a murdered woman who was never identified.) As time passed on death row, questions began to arise about the case. Eventually the Texas State Attorney General, Jim Mattox, decided to convene a grand jury to look in to the case, and evidence was adduced that proved that Lucas was not even in the state of Texas at the time that "Orange Socks" was murdered.

Lucas was and is a bad man, guilty of multiple murders, child molestation and theft as well as having misled investigators in numerous other cases, perhaps befouling any chance of ever solving some of them. He certainly deserves the death penalty for his crimes. However, the only case in which he received the death penalty had been proven to be based upon a false confession. Public outrage over the finding was intense. Many wanted to see Lucas die, including prominent Texas politicians. They didn't really see why he should get off on a "technicality". After all, he was certainly guilty of other murders.

Yet Bush stood firm and on June 26, 1998, the Governor granted clemency to Henry Lee Lucas for the murder of "Orange Socks". (He remains in prison, sentenced to life, for his other crimes.)

From the dates, you can see that these two cases were only four months apart. Bush was accused of murdering a Christian and letting a murderer go free. The rhetoric was intense. Yet he never wavered. His conviction was that someone duly convicted of a capital crime by the courts of Texas should have their sentence carried out, no matter how popular their cause, and someone whose conviction was fraudulently obtained should have their sentence vacated, no matter how controversial or despicable a person they may be.

More than anything, this is what made me a strong Bush supporter, long before he became my President.