Texas Republican Leaders Ignorant Of The Law

The above picture (from the excellent blog Texas Vox) shows the reality of former Republican congressional leader Tom DeLay.   He has been convicted of a couple of serious crimes and stands a very good chance of having to do some jail time for his criminal behavior.   But reality has never been a strong suit for Republicans, and it now looks like Texas Republican leaders have broken any tenuous hold on reality they might once have had.

The Texas State Republican Executive Committee is considering a rather ridiculous resolution this weekend.   The resolution is to call on Governor Perry to immediately pardon Tom DeLay for his criminal behavior so he won't have to serve any sentence in jail.   The SREC is the most powerful group of Republican leaders in the state, and one would expect that they should know Texas law -- but evidently they don't.

While governors in many states do have the power to pardon anyone they want, that is not true in Texas.   The governor of Texas does not have the power to pardon anyone.   All he can do is recommend a pardon to the Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP), and that board has no obligation to follow (or even acknowledge) the governor's recommendation.   That board is the only entity which has the power to pardon anyone convicted in Texas, and it is a power they almost never exercise.

Perry has been the governor of Texas for over 10 years now and has probably appointed or re-appointed all the members of the BPP.   But if they pardon a recently-convicted Republican politician when they have never pardoned any Democrats and have seldom pardoned anyone at all, that's going to certainly have the stench of party favoritism and political cronyism.   And that could cause serious public criticism even in a state as red as Texas.

But it could happen.   Modern right-wing Republicans don't seem to have much respect for the law or ethics when it comes to something they want.   For them, law and ethics are things that only apply to Democrats.

Tom DeLay is a convicted criminal.   He was convicted by a jury of his peers in a fair trial (and he was defended by one of the best attorneys in Texas).   It would not be right for him to be pardoned at this time.