If Clinton had stopped the execution, he probably never would have become President. Only four years before, the Democratic candidate, Dukakis, had been crucified because Willie Horton, a paroled prisoner from his state, had been convicted of subsequent crimes. Clinton had once opposed capital punishment, but he allowed the execution of Rector to proceed.
The doctors had trouble finding a vein to administer the lethal injection and the execution was delayed for over an hour.. Carolyn Staley, a friend of Clinton’s heard about the delay on the radio and called the candidate.
She told him: 'I just wanted to let you know that I'm praying for you about the execution tonight,' and he replied in a groan: 'It's just awful. Just terrible, terrible.' As she recalls it now, 'I heard in his voice a self - a depth of anguish - I'd never, never heard in him before.' She then told him: 'You know, he's not even dead yet.' 'What?'she remembers him exclaiming. 'What?' He just groaned, she remembers.In other words, Clinton did not enjoy killing Ricky Ray Rector. He took no pleasure in the act. In contrast Bush, as Governor of Texas, would laugh and prance and mock his victims before killing them. The main difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Rebublicans kill people because they enjoy it, Democrats kill people too, because they’re afraid not to.
Marshall Frady, “ Death in Arkansas,” New Yorker, Feb. 22, 1993
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