Texas does not forbid the execution of the mentally...

Texas does not forbid the execution of the mentally retarded or juvenile offenders and does not have life without parole. A jury decides the sentence. The Governor needs a favorable recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles in order to be able to grant clemency. The Governor is not obligated to follow the recommendation of the Board. The Governor also has the power to grant a thirty day reprieve. Since Governor George Bush took office in January 1995, 149 prisoners have been executed in Texas, far more than in any other US state. Despite concerns of possible innocence in several cases, Governor Bush has never used his power to grant a 30-day reprieve, and his appointees on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles have only once recommended that he commute a death sentence as a result of a clemency petition (that of Henry Lee Lucas in 1998).