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GOP Presidential Debate: Everyone Attacks Rick Perry, But Cheers His Grotesque Legacy of Executions

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's debut on the GOP presidential debate stage offered a scenery-chewing performance, and an enthusiastic reception for the executions on his watch.

September 7, 2011  |  

Photo Credit: MSNBC

Amid the hardest economic conditions since the Great Depression, last night's debate among the contenders for the Republican Party's presidential nomination was expected to turn on issues of job creation and government spending. But the biggest applause line of the night was a cheer for death and vengeance.

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When co-moderator Brian Williams of NBC noted the 234 executions that took place in Texas on the watch of Gov. Rick Perry, the current frontrunner in the GOP presidential contest, the crowd assembled in the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, roared its approval. Asked if he ever lost sleep worrying that one of those executed might have been innocent, Perry replied, "No, sir. I’ve never struggled with that at all." [Video via TPM.]

Yet Perry is believed to have done just that in the case of at least one man,Cameron Todd Willingham, and perhaps others.