One of the most important reasons to oppose any more judicial appointments by Bush and Cheney is the position the Bush cronies and supporters take on capital punishment. Consider today the comments of Justice Antonin Scalia on the death penalty in which he seemed unmoved by any discussion of pain caused by a three-drug cocktail administered to the condemned, as if the Constitution said nothing about "cruel and unusual punishment."
Mark Sherman reports for the AP appearing in today's The Washington Post:
"Supreme Court justices indicated Monday they are deeply divided over a challenge to the way most states execute prisoners by lethal injection, which critics say creates an avoidable risk of excruciating pain.
"With executions in the United States halted since late September, the court heard arguments in a case from Kentucky that calls into question the mix of three drugs used in most executions."
The difference of opinion on allowing the death penalty is the hallmark of conservative judges. Conservative jurists love the death penalty, and they don't find anything repulsive or cruel about it in any of its forms.
Consider the report on über-conservative Scalia:
"Justice Antonin Scalia was among several conservatives on the court who suggested he would uphold Kentucky's method of execution and allow capital punishment to resume.
"States have been careful to adopt procedures that do not seek to inflict pain and should not be barred from carrying out executions even if prison officials sometimes make mistakes in administering drugs, Scalia said. "There is no painless requirement" in the Constitution, Scalia said."
Has Scalia ever heard of the Eighth Amendment that bars cruel and unusual punishment? Furthermore, the U.S. is among the few countries that still impose the barbaric death penalty. Other countries include China, Iran and Iraq. Why must the U.S. still cling to the outdated and repudiated reason that criminals will be deterred from committing murder because of the death penalty?
"Both sides in the case said they are bothered by the seemingly endless series of death penalty cases that come to the court.
"Justice David Souter urged his colleagues to take the time necessary to issue a definitive decision about the three-drug method in this case, even if it means sending the case back to Kentucky for more study by courts there.
"Scalia, however, said such a move would mean "a national cessation of executions. We're looking at years. We wouldn't want that to happen.""
Monday, January 7, 2008
MEAN JUSTICE SCALIA SAYS CONSTITUTION DOES NOT MANDATE LACK OF PAIN IN EXECUTIONS
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So what is cruel and unusual. We all remember Tookie Williams, the media darling who was a gang banger and was sentenced to death for placing a shotgun to the back of a man's head and killing him. Well Tookie was executed by the state using lethal injection. But aghast, that is cruel and unusual punishment to you liberals.
ReplyDeleteSo what would not be cruel and unusual. Obviously Mr Williams did not believe that putting a shotgun to the back of someone's head was cruel or unusual. So perhaps in the future when we sentence someone to death for committing a crime, we should execute them in the exact manner in which they committed the crime.