[ed. It has been pointed out that Mr. Humes is incorrect in stating Gov. Bush was involved in this case. Ann Richards was governor during 1993 and news articles state that she handled the review]

Excerpted from "Mean Justice" by Edward Humes, Pocket Star Books, 1999.

The execution of Leonel Herrera, convicted of killing a police officer, takes place in Texas as scheduled, despite new witnesses, including an eyewitness and a former Texas state judge, who implicated someone else in the crime. Additionally, another suspect confessed, and Herrera passed a polygraph test attesting to his own innocence. But the United States Supreme Court ruled that Herrera was not entitled to a federal hearing on the case, not because the evidence was lacking or disprovable, but because of the strictly technical limits Texas places on the introduction of new evidence in an effort to speed up executions. The high court suggested Herrera seek a commutation from the governor of Texas, George W. Bush; Bush denied the plea, as he has done with every condemned prisoner who has sought a pardon. In dissent, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote of the Herrera case: "Just as an execution without adequate safeguards is unacceptable, so too is an execution when the comdemned prisoner can prove that he is innocent. The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder."