# Former Supreme Court Justice Convinced By Book That Texas Executed An Innocent Man in 1989

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-supreme-court-justice-convinced-by-book-that-texas-executed-an-innocent-man-in-1989/711163>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 28, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-supreme-court-justice-convinced-by-book-that-texas-executed-an-innocent-man-in-1989/711163 "2015-01-28T23:43:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-supreme-court-justice-convinced-by-book-that-texas-executed-an-innocent-man-in-1989/711163/41 "2015-01-30T20:18:52Z")

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> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Your link says:
> 
> Why did you say the focus group as a whole approved of this sentiment? Did they? I can’t find any evidence this is so.

It seemed like that was the “money quote”, but the point was that Rick Perry’s willingness to execute an innocent man didn’t hurt his appeal among the focus groups, across the board. The crazy part is that this horrified the Hutchison team, _only because they figured that Perry’s recklessness would give ammunition to opponents of the death penalty_, not due to killing an innocent man.

“This state is just medieval sometimes…” A former professor of mine, referring to Texas.

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**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-supreme-court-justice-convinced-by-book-that-texas-executed-an-innocent-man-in-1989/711163/42 "2015-01-31T10:29:51Z")

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> [@Great\_Antibob](#):
>
> No, he doesn’t. Facts matter. Play hypothetical games elsewhere. Plenty of death penalty proponents think this case was all kinds of screwed up.
> 
> Rick Perry covering his ass by asserting his own personal conviction doesn’t change that.
> 
> Again, facts matter.
> 
> This isn’t a hypothetical game.

You didn’t even read the post you referenced, or, you didn’t even understand the whole of the point.  
Of course ‘facts matter’. Wow, how impressive! I think you may have opened a whole field of legal study.  
Listen, that is irrelevant and childish. Who will argue that facts don’t matter??  
The facts are that Perry was pointing out a fact that mattered. That was, that motive (which can often be called a fact, in re one’s actions) matters.

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