Perry says he’ll respect Supreme Court in Texas execution delay

Reporting from Atlantic, Iowa —  Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Friday that he respected the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to block the execution of a Houston murderer who would be the 236th person put to death on his watch.

Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, and Texas judges had refused to grant requests for a reprieve from convicted murderer Duane Edward Buck.

“Whether or not he is guilty is not in question,” Perry told reporters while campaigning at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in rural western Iowa. “Clearly he was guilty of murdering two people in the state of Texas. Whether or not the jury process was tainted will be decided by the Supreme Court, and we will respect that.”

Buck was sentenced to die after jurors were told he posed a greater danger to public safety because he is black. On that basis, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped Texas officials on Thursday from putting him to death while the justices decide whether to review the case. The reprieve came just hours before Buck’s scheduled execution.

“I won’t venture a guess what the Supreme Court will decide on this one,” Perry said. “But it will go forward and justice will be served, either with a decision that the execution goes forward or that this individual was in fact impinged by some testimony.”

Buck, a 48-year-old auto mechanic, was sentenced to death for the fatal 1995 shootings of an ex-girlfriend and a man. His attorneys did not dispute his guilt but said that prosecutors should not have used his race to argue for a death sentence.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended against clemency. Perry did not respond to Buck’s plea for a 30-day reprieve.

Perry, who has presided over more executions than any of his predecessors as Texas governor, said he had full confidence in the state’s justice system and no problem with the Supreme Court’s delay in Buck’s execution.

“They’re taking the appropriate path, in my opinion, and justice will be served at some particular time in the future,” he said.

Perry’s remarks came near the end of a two-day campaign swing across central and western Iowa. He has used the trip mainly to push back at Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney, who has criticized Perry’s dismissal of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme.” At every stop, Perry attacked the healthcare law that Romney pushed as governor of Massachusetts, saying it was the model for President Obama’s healthcare overhaul and has cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

The Texas governor is the newest entrant into the presidential contest, but strategists believe that he has a chance in Iowa of cutting into the popularity of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) among evangelical voters, who will make up a substantial share of the Iowa electorate in next year’s caucuses. Both candidates have successfully appealed to those voters in past elections.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com