Antonin Scalia recently gave a speech in which he said the majority was preparing to do away with the death penalty altogether.
Apparently he is right.
Florida law concerning who has the authority (Judge in this case) to condemn a convicted murderer was decreed unconstitutional; not the death penalty “itself”. Florida legislature will just “correct” the law/procedural impasse.
The death penalty is clearly and specifically provided for in the Constitution. What rationale does Scalia believe the majority would use to invalidate it?
If it is unconstitutional, then howcome none of the people who wrote the constitution ever seeked to eliminate it? It was a very common punishment at the time, afterall.