Don’t ever say this Supreme Court is conservative!
A couple of years ago I was on a grand jury which heard dozens of cases each week. About a quarter of the cases involved either child sexual abuse or child pornography. In each instance, the district attorney’s presented evidence, live testimony from child victims, graphic photos and videos. We went through this cycle time after time. It was sickening and something that has stayed with me.
The idea that child rapists are protected from the death penalty is obscene to me. We are not talking about shooting them, hanging them or electrocuting them. We are talking about lethal injection.
Justice Kennedy, once again, is on the wrong side of the issue. In the majority opinion, he says that the death penalty violates the eighth amendment,
The Eighth Amendment, applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, provides that “[e]xcessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Kennedy then goes on to write the following,
Evolving standards of decency must embrace and express respect for the dignity of the person, and the punishment of criminals must conform to that rule.
“Evolving standards of decency”? Dignity of the person? He’s not referring to a homeless panhandler, but a vicious, sadistic child rapist! WTF is he talking about?
Justice Alito authored the dissent, it is well worth reading,
“The Court today holds that the Eighth Amendment categorically prohibits the imposition of the death penaltyfor the crime of raping a child. This is so, according to theCourt, no matter how young the child, no matter how many times the child is raped, no matter how many children the perpetrator rapes, no matter how sadistic thecrime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be. The Court providestwo reasons for this sweeping conclusion: First, the Courtclaims to have identified “a national consensus” that the death penalty is never acceptable for the rape of a child;second, the Court concludes, based on its “independent judgment,” that imposing the death penalty for child rape is inconsistent with “‘the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.’” Ante, at 8, 15, 16 (citation omitted). Because neither of these justifications is sound, I respectfully dissent….
…In summary, the Court holds that the Eighth Amendment categorically rules out the death penalty in even the most extreme cases of child rape even though: (1) This holding is not supported by the original meaning of the Eighth Amendment; (2) neither Coker nor any other prior precedent commands this result; (3) there are no reliable”objective indicia” of a “national consensus” in support ofthe Court’s position; (4) sustaining the constitutionality ofthe state law before us would not “extend” or “expand” the death penalty; (5) this Court has previously rejected the proposition that the Eighth Amendment is a one-way ratchet that prohibits legislatures from adopting new capital punishment statutes to meet new problems; (6) theworst child rapists exhibit the epitome of moral depravity; and (7) child rape inflicts grievous injury on victims andon society in general.”
Read the court’s ruling to see just how savage this rape of a child was. Justice Kennedy and the rest of the liberals on the court think that the man who did this does not deserve to die via lethal injection? Lethal injection? They are concerned with his “dignity”. I won’t say what he trully deserves. The idea that lethal injection is “cruel” punishment for a human being who would violently rape a young child is about the most outrageous thing I have ever read.
It’s as crazy as giving Kahlid Sheik Mohammed the same rights that you and I have. Oh yeah, Justice Kennedy did that too.
John McCain is CRAZY if he doesn’t make the court a major campaign issue, starting tonight. Go on TV and read this decision, then ask the American people if they want more of this nonsense, or less.
UPDATE: Obama knows this is bad news for him, so he comes out against yesterday’s ruling, as does McCain.
“I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes,” Obama said at a news conference. “I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution.”
Obama’s Republican rival, John McCain, also criticized the court’s decision, calling it “an assault on law enforcement’s efforts to punish these heinous felons for the most despicable crime.”
“That there is a judge anywhere in America who does not believe that the rape of a child represents the most heinous of crimes, which is deserving of the most serious of punishments, is profoundly disturbing,” McCain said in a statement.
Ronald Reagan gave us Justice Anthony Kennedy, proving once and for all that Supreme Court justices are like a box of chocolates. That being said, Powerline’s John Hinderaker is correct,
Even Barack Obama couldn’t stomach this one, in an election year. But that’s only a ruse: bad as Republican appointees have often been, any Justice appointed by Obama would be selected precisely for his eagerness to impose his liberal views on “unenlightened” voters.
June 25, 2008 4:58 pm 
I tend not to agree with the ruling, but how do you feel with the argument that if a death penalty can be applied, Criminals could feel it necessary to kill the child to try to prevent any evidence, testimony, etc.
I’m not sure If I buy that, but the death penalty would still be in place in states that allow it if a child is killed, but whats stopping a criminal from trying to get rid of all the evidence if he/she knows she could get death just for the first crime.
SCOTUS UPHOLDS THE CONSTITUTION!
June 27th, 2008
In what has become the typical 5-4 split on the Supreme Court–with 4 conservatives on the good side, 4 liberals on the bad side, and Justice Kennedy swinging in the middle, SCOTUS struck down the D.C. ban on the legal possession of handguns for self-defense. Score one for the good guys! (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080627/D91I48C82.html)
I hope someone is keeping tally on the D.C. crime rate. If it goes up, watch for headlines, prime time specials, and rallies for new gun laws. If the crime rate goes down, watch for no media coverage. I’m betting on a plunging crime rate as Joe Average D.C. Citizen starts packing a weapon to ward off the already-armed reprobates.
One can only hope that the next Court sees a few more conservatives who just may determine there is no “right to privacy” in the Constitution and overturn Roe V. Wade. One can always dream, no?
Tags: CRIME RATE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, GUNS, SCOTUS, SECOND AMENDMENT
When a man says one thing in a press conference, then another…it shows me that he is a mindless idiot and only wants to win..If you cannot tell the truth about a vote, as the one on military medical care…and claim you voted when you didn’t…it also tells me he thinks we are mindless idiots! It is very sad that there are actually people who will still vote for him despite the history of “MisStakes”…also known as OUTRIGHT LIES..of course his believers think he is just saying things to get elected..Well that will not last long unless he is elected as President for LIFE..which probably is what they want… Democrats have controlled congress for most of the time since WW2..look at what they have done..then in 2006 they PROMISED they would CUT THE OIL PRICES..this is a real problem for them..THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH ..A HINT FOR THEM…A CUT IS A REDUCTION IN PRICE…NOT AN INCREASE. WHEN THEY ADDED MBTE FOR POLLUTION CONTROLS IN THE 90′S THEY WERE SO PROUD, GAS STATIONS HAD TO RETOOL…AND NOW WE FIND OUT THAT THAT ADDITIVE WAS A “DEADLY POISON” …
THEY BELIEVE ANYTHING , DO ANYTHING..TO PLEASE THEIR CONSTITUENTS…AND THEN THEY ENDANGER ALL OF US AND IN THIS CASE KILLED OR MADE VERY ILL …THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF US..AND CAUSED MORE RATHER THEN LESS POLLUTION…