Scalia Once Pushed Death Penalty For Now-Exonerated Inmate Henry Lee McCollum

[Hissyspit]

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5756362?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016

Scalia Once Pushed Death Penalty For Now-Exonerated Inmate Henry Lee McCollum

Ed Mazza The Huffington Post 09/02/14 09:29 PM ET
A North Carolina death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence on Tuesday was once held up by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as an example of someone who deserved to die.

When the court declined to review an unrelated death row case out of Texas in 1994, Justice Harry A. Blackmun issued a dissenting opinion arguing that capital punishment is cruel and unusual, and therefore unconstitutional.

Scalia answered back with an opinion of his own:

"For example, the case of an 11-year-old girl raped by four men and then killed by stuffing her panties down her throat," Scalia wrote in Callins v. Collins. "How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that!"

He was referring to Henry Lee McCollum, who at the time had already been on death row for 12 years. McCollum's conviction was overturned on Tuesday when DNA evidence implicated another man in the case.

MORE

[hlthe2b]

1. If Scalia really believes in the concept of hell...

he ought to be quaking in his boots as each year passes and his time runs short. But, like all the lying exploitative opportunisstic televangelists, I think his concept of "Catholic Christianity" is merely a means to an end--to obtain and maintain power.

He is one ugly ugly ugly man--in many more ways than one.

[enough]

2. He believes in hell for others, certainly not for himself. (nt)

[mountain grammy]

6. Yes indeed, he is one ugly excuse for a human being.

[rustbeltvoice]

10. Yes, and double yes.

In that article Scalia is quoted,
"It should be noted at the outset that the dissent does not discuss a single case -- not one -- in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit," Scalia wrote in the 2006 Kansas v. Marsh case. "If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops by the abolition lobby."

and sometime ago in similar mendacity,

"...Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote an opinion in January 1993, in which, he, with Clarence Thomas concurring, state innocence is not a reason to deny the execution of a man, Leonel Torres Herrera. The, supposed, pro-life, justice’s words:

... reluctance of the present Court to admit publicly that Our Perfect Constitution lets stand any injustice ... embarrassing question ...

Herrera was executed the twelfth of May 1993, in Texas. In the year 2000, the governor of Illinois, George Ryan made the statement:

We have now freed more people than we have put to death under our system.

He said this after a 13th person, whom was to be executed, was shown to be innocent of the crime he was sentenced to. ..."
click

Scalia is not interested in justice as equity, only as punishment. Innocence is not of consequence. The power to execute punishment is his 'justice'.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

11. I remember reading that opinion ...

... regarding that if the sentence was reached correctly, regardless of guilt, the sentence should be carried out.

What a disgusting and vile creature, he is.

[PDJane]

3. I would think that living with himself would be a kind of hell all by itself.

I firmly believe the man is amoral; his only moral judgements are selfish and concern his own pocketbook. He is, after all, associated with the Koch brothers.

[toby jo]

4. I'm glad this guy got exonerated. What a hell to live with.

[CanonRay]

5. If only Scalia had a conscience and gave a crap

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. I say McCollum gets to kick Scalia in the balls at least one time.

Now that would be true justice.

[samsingh]

8. and scalia the moron probably doesn't have a second of regret

he is disgusting

[spanone]

9. mr scalia shames all judges. there is nothing supreme about this partisan shit.

[Octafish]

12. Thanks to Scalia, lots of people have been put to death...

...including uncounted millions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. In one sense, Scalia was perfectly right ...

the murder of that little girl was so heinous that most people's reaction would be to want the killer(s) put to death. BUUUUUUT ....

How sure can we be in ANY case that the right man was convicted, charged, or even a suspect ? In this case, the prosecuters got the wrong men railroaded to Death Row. THIS is why I oppose the Death Penalty -- not because it is inappropriate, or even "cruel and unusual", but simply because the stakes are so high, and a wrongful execution is utterly irreversible. Human beings are simply too fallible to believe that we aren't going to execute a LOT of innocents if we're given the power to do so. The authority to take a human life should be granted only under the most extreme of circumstances, and with great reluctance. Handing out death sentences routinely is just guaranteed to lead to miscarriages of justice.