"THANKS to a botched suicide bid that blew away part of his brain, the
Arkansas murderer Ricky Ray Rector had no inkling of the link between
his execution and the presidential ambitions of his state’s governor,
Bill Clinton. Indeed, as he was taken to die by lethal injection (it
took 50 minutes of jabbing to find a suitable vein), Rector saved the
pecan pie from his last meal “for later”. It did not matter. Mr Clinton,
who flew home to Arkansas from the 1992 campaign trail to oversee
Rector’s death, had proved he was as tough on crime as any Republican."