Perry supports the death penalty.[114] In June 2001, he vetoed a ban on the execution of mentally retarded inmates.[115] As of September 18, 2014, there have been 278 executions since Perry first took office in December 2000.[116]
Cases in which Perry has been criticized for his lack of intervention include those of Cameron Todd Willingham, Frances Newton, and Mexican nationals José Medellín and Humberto Leal Garcia.[117][118][119][120]
Perry commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster, who was convicted of murder despite evidence that he was only present at the scene of the crime. Foster was convicted under a Texas law that makes co-conspirators liable in certain cases of homicide. In this case, it tied Foster to the triggerman. Perry raised doubts about the law and urged the legislature to re-examine the issue. "I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment," Perry said in a statement at the time.[121]
Perry also refused to grant a stay of execution in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham even though an investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission determined parts of the original investigation may not have looked at all of the evidence correctly. Perry called Willingham a "monster" and later replaced the chairman of the Science Commission.[122][123]
From the end of the Civil War until contemporary times, a significant faction of the Democratic Party was composed of fairly conservative/authoritarian (also racist/xenophobic) politiicians (and their political supporters) from the former Confederate States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Coalition
In the wake of the Civil Rights movement and the GOP Southern Strategy, most (but not all) of this faction migrated to the Republican Party.
A preference for severe criminal punishment to oppress N*gg*rs, Sp*cs, and Dirty Long-Haired Hippy Freaks....er, "preserve law and order" is a characteristic political stance of both "Blue Dog" Democrats and their ideologically similar counterparts in the GOP.
Yikes. I seldom see such tight-asssed Democrats anywhere any longer. I guess when you live and rule in Texas, all bets are off. You can call yourself anything and get away with it. Blue Dog, huh? I have a better name for them. 
Thanks, OS. If it walks like a racist, and talks like a racist, it is a right-wing, Tea Bag Republican to me no matter what the fake label is.
@m2c -- Rick Perry was, indeed, a Democrat earlier in his political career.
https://www.texastribune.org/2011/07/14/rick-perry-democrat-years/
And, yes, there IS something wrong with the State executing innocent people (which is one reason the death penalty is so controversial).
Stepper. It has NOTHING to do with "moral relativism" and everything to do with admitting a mistake. Is the election of bad leaders relative? I guess so.
I am watching a show right now where Reuben Cantu was executed. For no better reason than it was a mistake by the Prosecution. By the Governor. And it was primarily for political reasons. No one wanted to admit they screwed up. An innocent man was put in a hell hole and kept there and then executed (which when innocent, amounts to murder) because the Law, ONCE MORE, did not get it right.
How can you run to a book defining some coined phrase for the answer? There is no moral code you can attach to those who would rather keep their jobs than admit that there is a doubt that someone should not be strapped down and murdered. Because that is what they did to Reuben. GROUP MURDER. Not moral relativism, whatever that coined, nonsensical clap-trap can possibly support as a reason and validate here.
Let us try some objective compassion coupled with empathy.....What if I know you as well as I do, which is not all that much, but I am invested in your well-being, for what that is worth. I want good for you, okay? I don't want to hear you are sad or having problems. I care.
NOW. What if I hear you are railroaded into a crime situation not of your making and made to DIE because of other people's mistakes? Do you think that would affect me? IT WOULD. It would haunt me forever. I would rather see someone guilty go free than endure the knowledge that someone like you was robbed of their life because you had the misfortune of being born in TEXAS where we are proud as punch to kill anyone that looks funny.
