<P> The Board, after hearing testimony, decides whether or not to recommend commutation to the Governor of Texas . If the Board recommends commutation, the Governor can accept or reject the recommendation . However, if the board does not recommend commutation, the Governor has no power to override the Board's non-recommendation (the law was changed in 1936 due to concerns that pardons were being sold for cash under the administrations of former Governor James E. Ferguson and later his wife and Texas's first female Governor Miriam A. Ferguson). </P> <P> The only unilateral action which the Governor can take is to grant a one - time, 30 - day reprieve to the defendant, and can do so regardless of what the Board recommends in a particular case . </P> <P> Since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1976, only two defendants sentenced to death have been granted clemency by the Governor after a recommendation from the Board: </P> <Ul> <Li> Henry Lee Lucas in 1998 by George W. Bush . </Li> <Li> Kenneth Foster in 2007 by Rick Perry . </Li> </Ul>

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