Scalia Gets Capital Punishment Dead Wrong

[napkinz]

Scalia’s 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 Blackmun’s 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. Scalia’s perfect example of a man who deserved to be killed by the state was innocent. North Carolina’s 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]

1. Murder is not justice.

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]

2. well, we know they're not trying to obtain justice

they just want to WIN

[Gregorian]

3. And it's not really an era, it's a condition.

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]

4. "And someone morphs and life experiences into a Scalia"

the gesture sums it all up

[Gregorian]

6. Haha.

I loved Colbert at that press dinner.

[napkinz]

9. brilliant ...

[napkinz]

5. more ...

North Carolina Man On Death Row Freed After 30 Years In Prison

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 McCollum’s 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]

7. k&r

[napkinz]

8. thanks beam me up scottie

I was hoping this thread, this issue would get more attention.

Scalia is despicable!

[surrealAmerican]

10. It won't change his mind about capital punishment.

This is the man who infamously said:

“Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.”

[napkinz]

15. and conservatives talk about impeaching Ruth Bader Ginsburg

[napkinz]

24. ...

[Enthusiast]

11. Scalia is a perfect example of a man that should not sit in judgment at any level let alone

on the supreme court.

[napkinz]

18. another gift bestowed upon us by Saint Ronnie

ah, the Reagan legacy

[Enthusiast]

19. Yeah. Way to go Saint Ronnie! You appointed a right wing religious extremist.

[Logical]

12. Many here on the DU agree with Scalia. Disgusting. nt

[Orrex]

20. ^^That.

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]

21. I agree. nt

[napkinz]

22. wow ... I don't know how I missed this.

I don't recall seeing any threads supporting Scalia on this issue.

Were these threads posted in GD?

[Orrex]

27. I don't know how you missed it, either.

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]

33. As does Hillary Clinton! Absolutely disgusting.

[Vattel]

13. Scalia is terrible on 8th amendment law. I confess I think he is pretty good on

4th and 5th amendment law.

[MoonRiver]

14. That man, Scalia, has completely perverted justice and the notion of judicial fairness

in this country.

[napkinz]

16. ...

[Rex]

17. Lifetime membership to the SCOTUS is garbage and needs to change.

ASAP.

[napkinz]

23. just wondering where our candidates -- Secy Clinton, Senator Sanders, Gov O'Malley -- stand on this

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Scalia is the most awful Supreme Court "justice" of my lifetime

which goes back to the Eisenhower era.

[napkinz]

29. and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 1986!

wtf were Democrats thinking?

[hifiguy]

26. It's much easier to count the things he gets right

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]

28. Scalia has been showing signs of increasing senility for some time

[napkinz]

31. I just think he's always been nuts.

[marmar]

30. There's very little that this pig doesn't get wrong.

[napkinz]

32. and now we know he's a creationist too

Scalia Commencement Speech Supports Young Earth Creationism

Class of 2015, you should not leave Stone Ridge High School thinking that you face challenges that are at all, in any important sense, unprecedented. Humanity has been around for at least some 5,000 years or so, and I doubt that the basic challenges as confronted are any worse now, or alas even much different, from what they ever were.

read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/06/scalia-commencement-speech-supports-young-earth-creationism/

[napkinz]

34. The Depraved Immorality of Justice Scalia: It’s Constitutional to Execute Innocent People.

“This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent. Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged “actual innocence” is constitutionally cognizable.”

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. Scalia’s moral depravity is also discussed here.




http://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/97532988186/the-depraved-immorality-of-justice-scalia-its

[napkinz]

35. ...