Hardly any of they prisoners executed during W's nearly six years as governor were arrested or tried during his time in office. He just happened to be governor when most of the legal issues regarding executions and capital crimes had been settled enough that the state could begin to clear some of its backlog of cases. Both Republican and Democrat governors supported the death penalty with more than just lip service. It is political suicide in Texas for a governor or attorney general to oppose it. The same number of prisoners would have been executed even if Ann Richards had won a second term.