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The Triumph of Dubious Death Penalty Appeals
Townhall.com ^ | July 20, 2014 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 07/20/2014 6:06:40 AM PDT by Kaslin

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1 posted on 07/20/2014 6:06:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The American judiciary has been a material factor in producing America’s decline into chaos. A single isolated judge can declare at any given time any given subject unconstitutional.


2 posted on 07/20/2014 6:13:21 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
"The American judiciary has been a material factor in producing America’s decline into chaos."

Such judges, including a number of Supreme Court Justices, have thus given aid and comfort to the enemy.

3 posted on 07/20/2014 6:16:18 AM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: Carl Vehse

Agreed. If any given act, condition or event is sedition, treason and/or criminality one can find a “Judge” to support it.


4 posted on 07/20/2014 6:19:04 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: Kaslin

I don’t fault condemned felons for wanting to delay execution as long as possible. I do, however, fault a system that allows them endlessly to do it through frivolous means.


5 posted on 07/20/2014 6:19:27 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Kaslin

The constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. It does not guarantee a painless execution.


6 posted on 07/20/2014 6:20:45 AM PDT by umgud (I couldn't understand why the ball kept getting bigger......... then it hit me.)
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To: Kaslin

The death penalty was practiced for nearly 200 years without interruption in the US from the time the Constitution was written until the 1970’s Supreme Court decision rendering it ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. So the drafters of the Constitution endorsed the death penalty from the time they wrote the law until their deaths.

It always amazes me that these visionary men did not understand that the law they wrote prohibited this practice, and it took 200 years before a group of appointed legal experts were able to tell us what the Founders REALLY meant when they wrote the Constitution.


7 posted on 07/20/2014 6:32:20 AM PDT by LucianOfSamasota (Tanstaafl - its not just for breakfast anymore...)
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To: Kaslin

I was a Prosecutor for 25 years and prosecuted my fair share of Capital cases.

We should abolish the death penalty for 2 reasons:

1. Innocent people are executed. We as a Christian society should never kill someone’s loved one to exact punishment on another.

2. The State (especially a burgeoning Police State such as ours) should NEVER EVER have the power to execute it’s citizens.

Are there people that deserve the death penalty? Absolutely 100% yes. I saw them first hand and they are even worse than you think you know they are. However, if we are to remain a civilized Christian and Conservative society we need to abolish the death penalty completely. Period.


8 posted on 07/20/2014 6:34:48 AM PDT by RIghtwardHo
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To: Kaslin

Only allow one appeal for each person. Allowing such a large number of appeals for criminals doesn’t bring in any additional insights into their case, and just blows taxpayer money on nothing.

If the liberals had their way, Earnest Jones would be free to roam the land and continue his murder spree.


9 posted on 07/20/2014 6:36:38 AM PDT by Objective Scrutator (All liberals are criminals, and all criminals are liberals)
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To: Kaslin

This is similar to environmentalist claims that nuclear power is uneconomical.

It is uneconomical, of course, primarily because of idiotic and intentionally burdensome regulations imposed by environmentalist panders in the government. And by repeated multiple lawsuits and delays created by environmentalist groups.


10 posted on 07/20/2014 6:43:52 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: RIghtwardHo
Innocent people are executed.

My understanding is that there is not a single confirmed case of this, at least since capital punishment was reinstated.

If you have evidence to the contrary, I'd very much like to see it.

Would also like to point out something you're probably well aware of. Most of those claimed as "innocent" are more accurately described as having gotten a court to agree their trial was conducted improperly in some way.

To my mind, at least, there's a really big jump from "His trial didn't meet standards," to "He actually didn't commit the crime."

11 posted on 07/20/2014 6:47:30 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Kaslin

With a conservative POTUS and congress, a major area of action should be the reorganization of the federal judiciary. The constitution requires the supreme court, but all subordinate courts are created and changed by congress. So a chairman of the house and senate judiciary committees can correct a huge number of problems.

1) Among other things, the reorganization should be used to purge a whole lot of really awful federal judges. They will have to be paid until they retire, but it doesn’t mean they will sit before civil and criminal cases, because their courts will no longer exist as such. No reason in the world to “laterally transfer” radicals and deadwood to new jobs.

2) A huge number of obstacles and obstructions can be swept away from federal involvement in state capitol punishment cases. Just by declaring states to be “competent authorities” in carrying out executions as they see fit, removes hundreds of reasons for appeal.

For the time being, states should authorize the use of the firing squad as an alternative to any other contested means of execution. That is, fine, you challenge lethal injection, so we will shoot you instead. Your challenge is instantly moot. Legally, it is much harder to challenge a firing squad, it is inexpensive, can be carried out anywhere, cannot be denied essential materials, requires no special training for the lawmen who pull the triggers, and is well established that it works.


12 posted on 07/20/2014 6:54:46 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

I don’t fault their attorneys, either. It is their legal obligation to do everything possible within the law for their clients.


13 posted on 07/20/2014 6:58:45 AM PDT by wintertime
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To: Sherman Logan

Hurricane Carter, guilty as Hell and free as a bird until prostate cancer claimed him.

http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter/


14 posted on 07/20/2014 7:10:12 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (This is known as "bad luck". - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: RIghtwardHo
However, if we are to remain a civilized Christian and Conservative society we need to abolish the death penalty completely. Period.

What a load of horse crap. We, as a civilized society, MUST put the price of innocent life as the pinnacle and state to those who deprive others of innocent life that NOTHING but their own life will recompense the victim. Christ never once argued against the death penalty, so your fallacious use of "Christian society" falls flat.

15 posted on 07/20/2014 7:10:57 AM PDT by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
2) A huge number of obstacles and obstructions can be swept away from federal involvement in state capitol punishment cases. Just by declaring states to be “competent authorities” in carrying out executions as they see fit, removes hundreds of reasons for appeal.

I doubt that would be constitutional. 14A prohibits any state from violating a citizen's rights. Such a claim can only be adjudicated in federal court.

16 posted on 07/20/2014 7:28:46 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: rjsimmon
Righto. We execute murderers because we hold human life sacred.

He who takes another's life unjustly loses his own right to life.

17 posted on 07/20/2014 7:30:20 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Kaslin

I remember back in the 1960s and 70s when an outgoing governor would commute all death sentences to life in prison.

I think that may be why Charlie Manson is still alive.

FEB 15, 1933,Guiseppe Zangara shoots at FDR and hits Mayor Anton Cermak, who later dies of his wounds.

MARCH 20, 1933 Zangara is executed for murder after ONLY 10 days on death row.

Now THAT was justice! None of this 20 year silliness.


18 posted on 07/20/2014 7:36:05 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need more than seven rounds, Much more.)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
The American judiciary has been a material factor in producing America’s decline into chaos. A single isolated judge can declare at any given time any given subject unconstitutional.

The LSAT effectively screens candidates for law schools for their leftist bias.

19 posted on 07/20/2014 7:56:34 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (ObamaCare IS Medicaid: They'll pull a sheet over your head and send you the bill.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

TWO THOUGHTS: 1) Support for the death penalty is a mile wide and an inch deep. 2) I think that in order to get over the fact that ‘innocent’ people are convicted I say consider his/her rap sheet to see if he is worth having around/breathing.

I don’t think that Yasser Arafat or Fidel Castro should be entitled to a natural death. We got laws against that too.


20 posted on 07/20/2014 8:01:00 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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