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Lawyers for death row inmate sentenced on basis of racist testimony in eleventh-hour in plea to Texas governor Duane Buck’s lawyers’ letter to Rick Perry Lawyers for a death row inmate in Texas who was sentenced to death on the basis of testimony from a psychologist who argued he was a risk to the public because he is black are making frantic eleventh-hour efforts to spare him from the execution chamber on Thursday. If their pleading fails to sway the Texas authorities, Duane Buck, 48, will be put to death by lethal injection at 6pm local time. His lawyers are appealing to the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, to use his powers to delay the execution to allow for the case to go to resentencing given the racially tainted nature of the original punishment. Lawyers are also calling on the district attorney in Buck’s local area to postpone the execution date, and are filing for a stay of execution to the Texas appeals court. Should these attempts fail, Buck would become the second death row inmate in Texas to be executed this week, with two more scheduled to die next week. The issue of capital punishment has entered into the national political debate surrounding Perry’s bid to become the Republican candidate in next year’s presidential election. Last week Perry, who is emerging as the frontrunner to take on Barack Obama in the November 2012 election, was quizzed about his enthusiasm for the death penalty in a TV debate. Perry said he had no qualms at all about any of the executions that have taken place on his watch, which include those of mentally ill prisoners, women, almost certainly innocent individuals and juveniles. The Republican audience cheered when they heard that 234 people had been put to death during Perry’s term in office – the highest number of any US governor in modern history. On Tuesday night, the first of four death row inmates scheduled to die in an eight-day period in Texas was administered the lethal injection. Steven Woods professed his innocence up to the minute of his death. His last words were: “You’re not about to witness an execution, you’re about to witness a murder … I’ve never killed anybody, never. This whole thing is wrong.” Woods was convicted of killing Ronald Whitehead and Bethena Brosz in a drugs dispute in May 2001. His alleged accomplice later confessed to having pulled the trigger and, in a plea bargain, was given a life sentence while Woods was put on death row. Death row campaigners are even more exercised about the case of Buck. Although there is no dispute over his guilt in a double murder in 1995 of his former girlfriend and a man, the jury at his sentencing hearing were presented with racist testimony. Under cross-examination from the prosecution, a psychologist was pressed to say that black people presented a greater risk of violent reoffending when released back into the community. Buck is African-American. Perry does not have the power to commute the death sentence, following the decision of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to dismiss an appeal for clemency. However, the governor does have the power to order a 30-day reprieve. Buck’s lawyer, Kate Black, told the Guardian such a reprieve would “allow time for the parties to come to an agreement that would afford Duane Buck a new sentencing hearing, untainted by race”. Phyllis Taylor, a friend of Buck’s victims who was wounded in the shooting, has come out in his support and called for the death sentence to be commuted to life in prison. “Through everything that has happened, I have found forgiveness in my heart. I forgave him because I know for a fact that he wasn’t in his right mind,” she said. Texas executes more people than any other state in the nation, with 10 put to death so far this year. Seventeen executions were held in 2010. Texas United States Rick Perry Human rights Capital punishment Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk