Texas governor rejects parole board recommendation of clemency for condemned inmate

Texas governor refuses clemency for condemned man

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry refused to spare a man facing execution Thursday evening for his role in a fatal robbery, rejecting a parole board recommendation that the death sentence of 34-year-old Robert Lee Thompson be commuted to life in prison.

Perry’s decision came about 30 minutes before Thompson was set to be taken to the Texas death chamber for lethal injection. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles made the rare recommendation for Thompson on Wednesday. He was not the triggerman in the fatal shooting of a Houston convenience store clerk 13 years ago.

The shooter, Sammy Butler, was convicted and received life in prison.

Perry was not required to follow the recommendation of the board, whose members he appoints.

“After reviewing all of the facts in the case of Robert Lee Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the killing of Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, I have decided to uphold the jury’s capital murder conviction and capital punishment for this heinous crime,” Perry said in a statement. “There is no reason to set aside the capital murder conviction handed down by a Texas jury and upheld by numerous state and federal courts.”