Terri Shiavo: President Bush considers the complexities of the case…
“This is an extraordinary case. It is a complex case, where serious questions and significant doubts have been raised… And the President is always going to stand on the side of defending life.” — White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, 3/21/05
Terry Washington: Governor Bush dismisses the complexities of the case …
“Take, for example, the case of Terry Washington, a mentally retarded man of thirty-three with the communication skills of a seven-year-old. Washington’s plea for clemency came before Governor Bush on the morning of May 6, 1997. After a thirty-minute briefing by Gonzales, Bush checked ‘Deny’– just as he had denied twenty-nine other pleas for clemency in his first twenty-eight months as governor….[Mitigating cirumstances included] the fact that Washington’s mental handicap had never been presented to the jury that condemned him to death.” — NY Review of Books, 1/13/05
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