Rick Perry racks up 250th execution

On Wednesday, October 31, the State of Texas executed Donnie Lee Roberts for the 2003 murder of his girlfriend.

Roberts has the dubious distinction of being the 250th death row prisoner to be executed under Governor Rick Perry.

According to Salon.com, "Perry has presided over more executions than any other governor in U.S. modern history." George W. Bush, by comparison, oversaw a mere 152 executions.

And, given the fact that Perry bragged about his execution rate (to thunderous applause) during a GOP presidential primary debate last year, I'm guessing that he's proud of this new milestone.

But instead he should be ashamed.

First, he should be ashamed because forensic evidence shows that he likely executed at least one innocent man in 2004 - and then impeded the investigation into the error. This does not deserve applause.

Second, he should be ashamed because more than 2,000 people convicted of serious crimes in the U.S. have been exonerated in the past 23 years based on DNA or other evidence. So that aforementioned case was not an isolated one. This does not deserve applause.

Third, he should be ashamed because it makes no logical sense to kill someone in order to show that killing is wrong. Doing so does not deserve applause.

But none of that seems to matter. Perry kills, and the bloodthirsty right-wing sheep applaud.

I wonder how any of those sheep would feel if, wrongfully convicted of a crime they did not commit, found themselves strapped to the lethal injection gurney in the Texas death house while the masses applauded their demise - and Perry took a bow.