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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsScalia Gets Capital Punishment Dead Wrong
Scalias perfect capital-punishment case falls apart
By Steve Benen
06/05/15
A little over two decades ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was dismissive of then-Justice Harry Blackmuns concerns about the death penalty. In fact, Scalia had a case study in mind that demonstrated exactly why the system of capital punishment has value. As regular readers may recall, Scalia specifically pointed to a convicted killer named Henry Lee McCollum as an obvious example of a man who deserved to be put to death. 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 a 1994 ruling. How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that!
For Scalia, McCollum was the perfect example a murderer whose actions were so heinous that his crimes stood as a testament to the merit of capital punishment itself.
Yesterday, McCollum was pardoned. Scalias perfect example of a man who deserved to be killed by the state was innocent. North Carolinas News & Observer reported:
Gov. Pat McCrory on Thursday pardoned two half-brothers who were exonerated of murder after spending three decades in prison. The governor took nine months to make the decision, saying he thoroughly reviewed the pardons sought by Henry McCollum and Leon Brown. Both men are intellectually disabled.
If this story sounds at all familiar, it was last fall when a judge ordered the men released. The confessions appeared to have been coerced 30 years ago and new DNA evidence implicated another man whose possible involvement had been overlooked at the time.
read more:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/scalias-perfect-capital-punishment-case-falls-apart?cid=sm_fb_maddow
http://reverbpress.com/justice/scalia-gets-capital-punishment-dead-wrong/
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)Wow, what an article. It's hard to fathom the depths that prosecutors have gone to obtain "justice" whether right or wrong.
I wonder if we'll ever exit this conservative era.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)they just want to WIN
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)But there's always hope. Or intelligence. Actually it's more like intentions. It's what I like about Bernie Sander's vision. If we aim a high moral compass, then we'll be doing the right thing. The best thing. Instead of those things, which really would demand effort, dedication, love, we follow the path of punitive rule of law. And someone morphs and life experiences into a Scalia. I guess hope works on a slow time frame.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)the gesture sums it all up
I loved Colbert at that press dinner.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)New DNA evidence cleared the names of two half-brothers three decades after they were convicted of a 1983 murder.
In 1994, Justice Antonin Scalia specifically pointed to McCollums case as being worthy of the death penalty.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/north-carolina-man-on-death-row-freed-after-30-years-in-pris#.ycQZqRo87l
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)I was hoping this thread, this issue would get more attention.
Scalia is despicable!
surrealAmerican
(11,365 posts)This is the man who infamously said:
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)on the supreme court.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)ah, the Reagan legacy
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Logical
(22,457 posts)And there's no end to the amazing acrobatics that they use to justify why this particular execution makes sense or that execution is deserved.
Far from a liberal outlook IMO.
Logical
(22,457 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)I don't recall seeing any threads supporting Scalia on this issue.
Were these threads posted in GD?
Orrex
(63,233 posts)DU has always had a contingent that either supports the death penalty outright for certain offenses (child rape, child murder, animal cruelty, straight-up murder) or else you have the kind of person who says "I'm usually against the death penalty, but in this case I'll make an exception..."
Or you have the other kind, who say "I don't support capital punishment, but put him in prison for life. They'll take care of him there."
These are the types of poster who are in line with Scalia on this issue. Sure, no one came out in explicit agreement with him on this specific case, but that's irrelevant.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)Vattel
(9,289 posts)4th and 5th amendment law.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)in this country.
Rex
(65,616 posts)ASAP.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)which goes back to the Eisenhower era.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)wtf were Democrats thinking?
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)than the infinity of things about which he is utterly and completely wrong. Whether he or Uncle Ruckus is the worst justice of this era is one of those unanswerable questions, in the vein of "how high is up?"
Gothmog
(145,666 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)marmar
(77,097 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)Scalia Commencement Speech Supports Young Earth Creationism
read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/06/scalia-commencement-speech-supports-young-earth-creationism/
napkinz
(17,199 posts)Fortunately, the verminous opinion of this pompous ass and his minion, serial sexual harasser, Justice Thomas, was the minority opinion.
Justice Scalia thinks he is a great constitutional scholar. He is increasingly revealed as a racist chauvinist pig who looks the part. Scalias moral depravity is also discussed here.
http://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/97532988186/the-depraved-immorality-of-justice-scalia-its