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.
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.
The constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. It does not guarantee a painless execution.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We had a guy finally executed last year after 22 years on death row for raping and murdering a 9 year old girl. He had TWO trials..a second after some minor flaws were found in his first. He was found guilty in the second trial and was again given the death penalty. He demanded and got DNA testing which he said would exonerate him...it didn’t and his semen was conclusively found in the girls body. Even then his appeals went on for years until finally being exhausted after 22 years. There was no doubt he committed the rape and murder and richly deserved the death penalty.
yet another example where liberals are winning with trickery. They know the public wants the death penalty, so since they can’t outright abolish it, They make it so it takes 20 years to execute someone (justice delayed is justice denied). Now look for a rash of their idiot judges following in this idiot’s footsteps.