Billary and the long shadow of Rickey Ray

On the evening of January 24, 1992, Rickey Ray Rector had to take a short walk. He asked if he could save for later the slice of pecan pie that came with his dinner.

He never made it back for dessert. His short walk was down Death Row to the execution chamber. After a struggle to find a vein, Rector, a 42-year-old who had murdered a veteran cop and a passer-by in a convenience store robbery, died from the lethal injection that had replaced the electric chair in the state of Arkansas.

Arkansas is significant. Rector died to help make Bill Clinton the 42nd President of the United States.

Clinton was then the state governor who signed the execution warrants. He signed away Rector's life in the full knowledge that this was a black man with an IQ of 70, brain-damaged by a bullet fired in