Henry Lee Lucas confessed to
killing 300 people. His partner in crime, Ottis Toole, corroborated his stories. He killed his mother and raped her dead body. He killed his 12 year-old lover and raped her dead body. He killed animals and raped their dead bodies.
But George W Bush, as Texas Governor, granted one reprieve from the death penalty during his tenure. That was to Henry Lee Lucas. Why? Who knows.
Bush -- who as governor executed 152 inmates -- issued the only reprieve in his career on the recommendation of the state parole board. "I can only thank them for believing the truth and having guts enough for standing up for what's right," Lucas said from death row. After the commutation, Lucas predicted that there was an "80 percent chance" he would walk free someday.
"Henry Lee Lucas is unquestionably guilty of other despicable crimes which he has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison," said Bush, in Brownsville for a conference of U.S.-Mexico border state governors. "However, I believe there is enough doubt about this particular crime that the state of Texas should not impose its ultimate penalty by executing him."