News postings to this listserve will resume on Dec. 31
Dec. 18
NORTH CAROLINA:
Our Opinion: Flawed punishment
Death row inmate James E. Williams completed his sentence last week. He wasn't
executed. He died of natural causes, 22 years after his conviction for murder
in Randolph County.
Several offenders have been on death row longer than he was, including Blanche
Taylor Moore. Her infamous case was featured in Sunday's News & Record. She was
sentenced to death 25 years ago for the arsenic-poisoning murder of her
boyfriend, Raymond Reid, in Forsyth County. Although she was never convicted of
any other killings, there was strong evidence to suggest she'd dispatched her
father, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and 1st husband the same way.
Moore is 82, 1 of 2 women on death row. In all, 148 offenders are waiting for
execution - 51 of whom have been waiting for more than 20 years.
No one has been executed in North Carolina since 2006. This makes some
politicians impatient. The legislature approved a bill this year that
eliminated the requirement that physicians participate in executions and
permits the state to keep information about the drugs used in lethal injections
secret to avoid public protests against manufacturers.
These measures may be expedient, but they won't cut through legal challenges
that are likely to keep executions on hold for years to come. It makes more
sense to do what Vincent Rabil suggested in a column published in the News &
Record's Ideas section Sunday: End capital punishment.
Rabil, a former Forsyth County prosecutor who helped win the death-penalty
conviction against Moore in 1990, is now a defense attorney. He noted how much
has changed over the years:
"Death verdicts have dramatically declined from highs of more than 20 per year
in the 1990s to 3 in 2014 and none in 2015. This isn't for lack of trying.
Prosecutors try about a dozen capital cases each year. Jurors are simply
finding life without parole more appropriate."
Rabil argues that the legal standards required to win a death sentence are very
high, making it a time-consuming and expensive process. But a conviction is
just the beginning of the cost. Appeals drag on for many years. Furthermore,
housing inmates on death row is expensive.
The cost is one reason why many conservatives say it's time to end the death
penalty. Nebraska abolished capital punishment this year. Conservatives
Concerned About the Death Penalty has an active chapter in North Carolina and
counts state Rep. Jon Hardister (R-Guilford) as a supporter. One question this
group asks is: If you don't trust government to operate efficiently and
effectively, why do you trust it to take someone's life?
Many people have been sentenced to death in error. Henry McCollum was released
from prison last year after it was proven he was wrongly convicted of murder
more than 30 years ago. If it wasn't for "government inefficiency," he would
have been executed long ago.
Many legislators fear a backlash from voters if they move to abolish the death
penalty. Yet, juries trust the sentence of life without parole for murderers.
Voters will, too. The worst offenders should die in prison, and they will - but
not by a flawed system of capital punishment.
(source: Greensboro News & Record)
LOUISIANA:
Prosecutors to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate death sentence in 1993
killing of Baton Rouge police officer
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Thursday his
office will ask the nation's highest court to review and correct a federal
appeals court ruling that would spare Kevan Brumfield the death penalty if
allowed to stand.
A 3-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans found
late Wednesday that Brumfield, 42, is intellectually disabled and thus
ineligible for execution - a finding that Moore said was disappointing to the
family, friends and co-workers of the late Cpl. Betty Smothers, killed 23 years
ago.
"I feel the hurt of Cpl. Smothers' family, receiving this court's decision at
what should have been a peaceful time despite the decades of agony that they
have endured," he said. "We will fight for justice for Cpl. Smothers, her
family and our community."
Moore said his office will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse the
5th Circuit panel's decision.
"No court decision can ever change the fact that this convicted armed robber
and murderer should face death as required by the laws of the state of
Louisiana for organizing, leading and executing the deadly ambush of a Baton
Rouge city police officer and a business manager," he added.
Former NFL, Florida State University and Catholic High School running back
Warrick Dunn, the oldest of Smothers' 6 children, declined comment through
Moore.
The deadly ambush occurred Jan. 7, 1993, as the 36-year-old Smothers, who was
working an off-duty security job, drove a grocery store manager to a Jefferson
Highway bank to make a night deposit. The manager, Kimen Lee, survived the
attack.
Brumfield, who was accused of firing the shots that killed Smothers, was found
guilty and sentenced to die in 1995. Henri Broadway, also of Baton Rouge, was
convicted later that year and condemned to die. He was accused of firing the
bullets that wounded Lee.
Broadway, 45, is seeking a new trial, but he is not challenging his mental
capacity. He claims his trial attorneys were ineffective. His case is pending
before state District Judge Mike Erwin.
U.S. District Judge James Brady, of Baton Rouge, ruled in early 2012 that
Brumfield is mentally retarded, what is now referred to as intellectually
disabled. After considerable legal wrangling over the next several years in
both the 5th Circuit and Supreme Court, 5th Circuit Judges Carolyn Dineen King,
Edith Brown Clement and Jennifer Walker Elrod ruled Wednesday that Brady did
not err in his decision.
Moore argues the appellate court's ruling, if allowed to stand, will only
encourage capital murder defendants to "raise false claims of mental
retardation" in an attempt to avoid the death penalty.
(source: The Advocate)
OHIO:
Prosecutor seeking death penalty for accused killer, rapist
Lake County Prosecutor Charles Coulson is seeking the death penalty for the man
accused of shooting a Concord Township woman to death inside her home in a
multi-crime incident.
Juan Manuel Razo Ramirez, A.K.A. Juan Razo, 36, was charged Dec. 17 in a
16-count indictment in Lake County Common Pleas Court.
Ramirez is accused of murdering 60-year-old Margaret "Peggy" Kostelnik July 27
after allegedly trying to rape a 14-year-old girl at Lake Metroparks' Helen
Hazen Wyman Park in Concord Township. He is also charged with trying to kill
Lake County Sheriff's Capt. Carl Dondorfer and/or Lake County Sheriff's Sgt.
Patrick Patterson and/or Geauga County Sheriff's Deputy Steve Deardowski.
In addition, he is suspected of shooting Mary Kable, 40, of Painesville, in the
arm in front of her children while on the Greenway Corridor in the Concord and
Painesville areas after committing the other 2 crimes.
Ramirez is charged with 2 counts of aggravated murder, 2 counts of attempted
murder, rape, 2 counts of attempted rape, 3 counts of kidnapping, 2 counts of
aggravated burglary, 2 counts of aggravated robbery and 2 counts of felonious
assault. He is also charged with 6 death penalty specifications and firearm
specifications.
According to the indictment:
Acting with prior calculation and armed with a .22-caliber rifle, Ramirez
entered Kostelnik's Ravenna Road home by force or deception to commit a theft
offense. Once inside the house, he forced himself on her sexually and killed
her.
On that same day, he kidnapped and tried to rape a minor and tried to kill
Kable and also discharged his firearm on at least 1 responding officer.
Ramirez - a Mexican citizen who does not have lawful permanent residence in the
United States - had been in Lake County Jail on a $10 million cash bond.
However, he is now being held without bail, said Coulson.
Ramirez surrendered July 27 following an exchange of gunfire with police after
dozens of officials searched the Greenway Corridor for hours.
The 1st count of aggravated murder has to do with prior calculation and design.
The other aggravated murder count alleges that Ramirez purposely caused the
victim's death after committing the burglary, kidnapping, rape and/or robbery
charges.
Ramirez's attorney, Lake County Public Defender Charles R. Grieshammer,
declined comment other than to say he would be bringing in at least 1 other
defense lawyer to assist with the case.
No hearing dates have yet been scheduled.
(source: The News-Herald)
KENTUCKY:
U.S. Supreme Courtroom reinstates Kentucky inmate's demise sentence
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the death sentence of a Kentucky
man convicted in the 1997 murders of a Louisville couple including a pregnant
woman who was strangled and whose body was found with scissors sticking out
from her neck.
The justices, in an unsigned opinion, reversed a February ruling by the
Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had thrown out
convicted murderer Roger Wheeler's death sentence.
The appeals court had said Wheeler deserved a new sentencing proceeding because
the state trial court judge had wrongly excluded a juror who had expressed some
reservations about imposing capital punishment.
The judge's move violated Wheele's right for his case to be heard by an
impartial jury under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the appeals
court ruled.
The Supreme Court disagreed. The justices said the appeals court should have
deferred to Kentucky's high court, which found there was no violation. A
federal law bars federal courts from 2nd-guessing state appeals court decisions
in death penalty cases unless there is a violation of "clearly established"
federal law under Supreme Court precedent.
Wheeler was convicted of the 1997 murders in Louisville of Nigel Malone and
Nairobi Warfield in the apartment they shared.
The Supreme Court's opinion noted that Malone was stabbed 9 times and that
Warfield, who was pregnant, was strangled to death, and a pair of scissors
stuck out from her neck. DNA linked Wheeler to the crime.
The case is White v. Wheeler, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-1372
(source: Reuters)
**************
Prosecutor will seek death penalty in Kentucky boy's death
Authorities believe that Exantus broke into Tipton's home in Versailles, Ky.
early Monday. Police said Ronald Exantus, 32, of Indianapolis is accused of
breaking into the house where the boy lived with his parents and siblings in
Versailles, near Lexington in Kentucky's thoroughbred and bourbon country.
Ronald Exantus was indicted Wednesday for murder, burglary and 3 counts of
assault. Investigators say it is unclear why the registered nurse drove
hundreds of miles to commit a murder. He also added that he "filed notice
Wednesday that he intends to pursue the death penalty".
The Versailles community is heartbroken over the tragic incident, and they are
offering their support by donating and acquiring clothing for the family. He
declined to elaborate, and gave no information about why Exantus went to the
boy's home. "I have discussed various things with him on 2 separate occasions
this morning and he's not able to really discuss anything; he's not here",
Hofler told reporters afterward. "They have enough to do just to nurture their
children". Football Stadium where he played football. He loved everybody." He
added, "I don't know what kind of anger this man had in his heart. "He was that
kind of kid".
Woodford Youth Football League President Peter Barnhardt told WLKY; 'You know,
he's playing football right now. He appeared in a Woodford County courtroom and
entered a plea of not guilty Monday with bond set at $1 million by District
Court Judge Vanessa Dickson.
Logan's funeral will be held Friday at 11 a.m.at the football field in
Versailles. His next arraignment will be held January 6 at Woodford Circuit
Court.
(source: The Telegraph Times)
MISSOURI:
Missouri's Death Penalty in 2015: A Broken and Crumbling System
The Death Penalty Information Center's 2015 Year End Report, released on
December 16, 2015, demonstrates that by every measure - public opinion, death
sentences, and executions - the death penalty declined in 2015 nationwide.
Across the U.S., there were 49 new death sentences in 2015, a 33% decline over
last year's total. In addition, the 28 total U.S. executions marked the lowest
number since 1991. Only 6 states carried out executions this year, and Missouri
was 1 of them.
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (MADP) has conducted an
in-depth analysis of trends in our own state, which is linked below. A snapshot
of Missouri developments includes:
6 Executions in 2015
No new death sentences in 2015 or 2014
1 Commutation: Kimber Edwards to Life in Prison
1 Death Row Inmate's Sentence Vacated: Reggie Clemons 4 Stays of Execution, (1
later overturned)
Frank Baumgartner (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), released a
report demonstrating that racial and geographic disparities were cause for
"concerns that the death penalty is applied in an unfair, capricious, and
arbitrary manner" in Missouri.
Sr. Helen Prejean came to Springfield and Kansas City, MO, to speak about the
death penalty and raise awareness among college students.??? New voices from
Evangelical communities begin to express concerns about capital punishment, at
both the national and state level.
Missouri executed 6 people this year, marking it as an outlier among other
states. This year's executions illustrate serious problems in the application
of the death penalty. Missouri executed the following men this year: Walter
Storey, Cecil Clayton, Andre Cole, Richard Strong, David Zink and Roderick
Nunley. These cases illustrate numerous problems with the death penalty,
including the execution of those with intellectual disabilities (such as a hole
in the brain), sentences reached by all-white juries in diverse communities,
inadequate and inexperienced legal counsel, mental illness and competency
issues, as well as the foreclosure of a possibility of redemption.
6 people were exonerated from death row across the country, highlighting the
risk of wrongful convictions in capital cases. They spent a total of over a
century on death row, and an average of 19 years in prison for crimes they did
not commit. Missouri has had 4 exonerations since 1973, most recently Reginald
Griffin in 2013.
As noted by Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty State
Coordinator, Staci Pratt, "These national trends clearly show that the death
penalty is falling out of favor as the public becomes more aware of this broken
system. It is time for Missouri to reconsider this costly and error-prone
punishment. Our system of capital punishment is crumbling beneath the weight of
an arbitrary, racially, and geographically biased approach to criminal
justice."
To read MADP's 2015 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in our State, please
follow the link appearing below. In reference to the Report, Pratt observed,
"No new capital sentences in 2015, as well as stays of execution for 4 men on
our death row, and the commutation for Kimber Edwards this year, shed light on
a state which is evolving. The executions we saw this year represent
anachronistic remnants from 15 years ago, when those sentences were handed
down. Today, we see change."
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: http://madpmo.hoster904.com/?page_id=196.
(source: Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty)
CALIFORNIA:
Death penalty possible in Salinas child abuse case
The Monterey County District Attorney's office will be seeking first-degree
murder charges with the possibility of the death penalty in the case of 2
children found dead in a Redding storage locker.
Preliminary autopsy results on the children found that they died as a result of
ongoing abuse that began in Salinas, Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin said.
Based on the autopsy and preparatory acts that led up to the deaths, Monterey
County District Attorney Dean D. Flippo also said he feels very confident that
the office will also be able to prove that the children also died in Salinas.
McMillin said the case was the most egregious child abuse homicide case that he
had ever seen.
On Friday, former Salinas residents Tami Joy Huntsman, 39, and Gonzalo Curiel,
17, were arrested for felony abuse, torture and mayhem in Quincy after someone
tipped off authorities of possible child abuse.
A responding Plumas County deputy found a starving 9-year-old girl locked in a
car with severe injuries.
The Plumas County News reported that the girl weighed about 40 pounds, had
broken bones in her shoulder, broken fingers, a dislocated jaw, missing or
loose teeth as well as open sores and lice. She underwent hours of surgery at a
Sacramento area hospital on Sunday and remains in protective custody.
While further investigating the child abuse, investigators learned that there
were possibly 2 dead children in a storage unit in Redding, and the information
was sent to the Redding Police Department.
Redding officers responded to an AAA Enterprise Store-All facility and found 2
young children's bodies in a plastic container there.
Authorities contacted Salinas police regarding 2 children, identified as
3-year-old Delylah Tara and 6-year-old Shaun Tara, and on Sunday, Salinas
police did a welfare check at a home on Fremont Street.
Social workers visited home before children's deaths
Officers forced entry into an apartment there and also entered the children in
a statewide missing person database as they continued to investigate the
whereabouts of the children.
In a Thursday afternoon press conference, Monterey County District Attorney
Dean Flippo said he's convinced that the children found in Redding are the
3-year-old and 6-year-old reported missing out of Salinas.
Flippo and McMillin said that the various relationships between Huntsman,
Curiel and the children were not yet clear.
However, it does appear that the 9-year-old, 6-year-old, and 3-year-old are
nieces and a nephew of Huntsman. It hasn't been confirmed that the 9-year-old
is the sibling of the other 2 though.
Huntsman also reportedly has other children, including a 15-year-old and
12-year-old twins.
Many details of the case remain unclear. Flippo and McMillin said they were
still trying to sort through "sketchy" details themselves and also cited the
ongoing investigation as reasons to not release further information at this
time.
Monterey County Department of Social Services had 4 prior referrals of general
neglect at the family's Fremont Street home over the last year, most recently
in August, officials have said.
(source: The Salinas Californian)
***************
DA Tony Rackauckas Bullies Judge Who Slammed Cheating in Death-Penalty Case
District Attorney Tony Rackauckas' 10-month-old gamble that the Orange County
snitch scandal would fizzle out has proven less than prophetic. In March,
Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Goethals booted Rackauckas and his office (OCDA)
from People v. Scott Dekraai, a death-penalty case, after determining
prosecutors can't be trusted to act ethically. Goethals' historic move meant
California Attorney General Kamala Harris would, given Dekraai's massacre
confession, take over penalty-phase duties.
Until that point, Rackauckas' staff spent four years blaming Assistant Public
Defender Scott Sanders, Dekraai's attorney, for torturing the victims'
survivors by stalling the case. We now know OCDA's tactics of hiding evidence
and filing deceptive court records caused the delays. Even the DA's
Kool-Aid-guzzlers had to concede the fake outrage after he urged Harris to
fight her assignment. Rather than assume control over Dekraai-a move that may
have landed the defendant on death row months ago-the AG is taking what could
be a multiyear appellate route.
You might assume someone 2-faced with crime victims had emptied his
dirty-tricks bag. But Rackauckas - who is a pleasant, engaging fellow in person
- seems to have an endless repertoire of shenanigans. Or, perhaps like a
recalcitrant juvenile, he's ingrained with a willingness to say anything to
escape accountability.
The latest evidence of this flaw emerged in the wake of a sensational Dec. 3
ruling by Richard M. King, an Orange County Superior Court judge. King is not
only a well-respected member of the bench, but, like Goethals, he is also a
former accomplished OCDA homicide prosecutor and Rackauckas colleague. My files
contain a circa early-1980s-era photo of the three men smiling together.
Local courthouses are teeming with judges who proclaim neutrality but have no
intention of siding against Rackauckas on disputes entailing shady government
conduct. Indeed, some of the more obnoxious members of the bench tout their
pro-prosecution bias, daring defense lawyers to complain. In recent weeks, I
witnessed such an episode, sought comment from the abused attorney and became
the recipient of a plea for silence because of feared retaliation.
Yet, like Goethals before him, King can no longer stomach Rackauckas' antics.
In November, he startled courthouse observers by overturning OCDA's
eyebrow-raising win in People v. Eric Ortiz. The prosecution team had trampled
Ortiz's constitutional rights by securing an illegal jailhouse confession, then
trying to cover up their mischief.
2 weeks ago, King bravely dove deeper into the cesspool. His 49-page remarks
were the legal equivalent of taking a mahogany 2-by-4 and slamming it against
the DA's thick skull. The message was unambiguous: Clean up your act, Tony!
King's ruling noted that OCDA disqualified - or papered - Goethals just once in
35 murder cases between Dec. 7, 2010, and Feb. 24, 2014. But in early 2014, the
agency launched what King calls a "blanket papering" campaign by disqualifying
Goethals 46 times out of 49 trial assignments from Feb. 25, 2014, to September
2015.
"This disparity [between years] is not coincidental," King wrote.
The attack on Goethals occurred precisely after he granted Sanders a special
evidentiary hearing in Dekraai that, after months of testimony, concluded
deputies inside the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) repeatedly
committed perjury and prosecutors "habitually ignored" the law.
While recusing OCDA from the case in March, Goethals declared, "The district
attorney cannot or will not, in this case, comply with discovery orders of this
court and the related constitutional and statutory mandates that guarantee this
defendant's right to due process and a fair trial."
Rackauckas and his lieutenants reacted bitterly, employing surrogates to imply
Goethals was a loon with an unspecified ulterior agenda. They also pondered a
campaign to remove him from the bench. At a press conference, the defiant,
72-year-old DA claimed defense lawyers such as Sanders were the real villains
and suggested reforms to strengthen current monumental powers of prosecutors.
King watched the events, hoping clearer minds inside OCDA would eventually
prevail. That hope still hasn't materialized.
In September, King sent 4 more murder trials to Goethals' C45, the county's
highest courtroom on the 11th floor, Santa Ana tower perch. Rackauckas' office
objected each time, and C45 remained comparatively idle while cases piled up in
other already-overloaded courtrooms. There was no mistaking the prosecutorial
revenge. The office even filed an objection to Goethals in a case 2 months and
one day before he'd even gotten the assignment.
The result is 2 needless messes, according to King. First, he believes the
routine disqualification of Goethals is an attempt "to intimidate, punish
and/or silence" him for refusing to ignore OCDA, OCSD and Santa Ana police
cheating. Also, as presiding judge of the county's 17-member felony panel, he
is tasked with managing the flow of trials akin to "an air-traffic controller
at a busy airport." The papering game - or, as King labeled it, "judge
shopping" - has caused "a strain" on the system, with cases languishing
"unnecessarily." Nowadays, he's refusing to automatically grant Goethals'
disqualification and told Rackauckas to complain to a California Court of
Appeal if he doesn't like it.
Kate Corrigan, an ex-OCDA prosecutor who is now a private Newport Beach
attorney, applauds King's commitment to the "integrity of the judicial system."
Once again, however, prosecutors didn't take the high road. In a Dec. 9 press
release, Rackauckas shoved Senior Assistant District Attorney Mike Lubinski
into the hot seat to declare the office's decision to appeal. An analytical
lawyer deft at maneuvering bureaucratic mazes, Lubinski tried to discredit
King's "blanket papering" stance with semantics. Don't laugh: It's not
"blanket" if only 96 % of the cases got moved from Goethals, so the reasoning
goes.
Lubinski's better argument is found within California law, which allows
prosecutors to disqualify a judge from a case by simply signing a timely oath
that the deputy DA has a "good faith belief" that prejudice exists. "The law
does not require a party to explain his or her reasons for peremptorily
challenging a judge," he correctly observed.
But King thinks Rackauckas' ham-fisted tactic violates the spirit of the "good
faith" portion of the disqualifying requirement. Will a state appellate panel
or the California Supreme Court agree? Unless the legislature takes corrective
action, some seasoned Southern California lawyers, who are sympathetic, have
doubts.
There's no mystery, however, about King's resolve against OCDA pressure to yank
Goethals from the felony panel or all murder trials. "The very thought of this
option is offensive," he wrote. "To allow a party to manipulate the court into
removing a judge from hearing certain criminal cases - when that judge, in the
performance of his judicial duties, has conducted a hearing which exposed that
same party's misconduct - not only goes against the very cornerstone of our
society, the rule of law, but would be a concession against judicial
independence."
King worries that bowing to prosecutorial bullying against Goethals would also
send a "loud message to other local judges that they could expect similar
treatment" if they explore future evidence of law-enforcement corruption.
"The situation before this court," he stated, "exemplifies the ability of the
executive branch to encroach upon or overpower the judiciary - particularly in
criminal cases."
This, King says, is a "crisis."
(source: Orange County Weekly)
USA:
Death Penalty Opponents Lost Battles In 2015, But They Are Winning The War
On the surface, 2015 was a terrible year for death penalty opponents. Despite a
series of botched executions, during which inmates were essentially tortured
inmates due to unreliable drugs used in the execution process, the Supreme
Court rejected an attempt to place safeguards on these state-sponsored killings
to ensure that they do not leave the inmate in agony. In the process, the Court
gave states broad immunity to lawsuits claiming that their execution protocols
are too cruel to continue.
Even as the Court's conservative majority placed the death penalty on a legal
pedestal, however, its actual use has withered. As a new report by the Death
Penalty Information Center (DPIC) explains, only 6 states performed executions
in 2015, killing a total of 28 people. That's down more than 70 % from 1999,
when annual executions peaked at 98.
This drop in executions might be explained by uncertainty hanging over whether
the Supreme Court would declare many executions unconstitutional in Glossip v.
Gross, the decision that ultimately bolstered the penalty's legal status. But
the number of death row inmates killed by the states did not simply decline in
2015 - so did the number of people added to death row. According to the DPIC
report, "there were 49 death sentences in 2015, 33% below the modern death
penalty low set last year."
This report built on other data showing that the death penalty is in decline
and is generally only used by a small number of jurisdictions. More than
one-third of all U.S. executions take place in a single state, Texas. A study
of death sentences from 2004-2009 determined that only 10 % of counties within
the United States produced a single death sentence, and only 1 % of counties
produced more than 1 such sentence. The death penalty, in other words, has
become the province of outlier jurisdictions and is never meted out in the bulk
of the nation.
As the death penalty grows more and more uncommon, that has profound
constitutional implications. The Eighth Amendment forbids "cruel and unusual
punishments," or, as Chief Justice Earl Warren once explained, it prohibits
punishments that cannot be squared with "evolving standards of decency that
mark the progress of a maturing society." Our standards are evolving, and they
are rapidly evolving away from the increasingly unusual practice of executions.
For the moment, it's unlikely that our increasing refusal to execute people
will move a majority of the Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito's majority
opinion in Glossip effectively gave the death penalty super-legal status. "Our
decisions in this area have been animated in part by the recognition that
because it is settled that capital punishment is constitutional," he wrote,
adding that '"[i]t necessarily follows that there must be a [constitutional]
means of carrying it out.'"
Alito, in other words, started with the premise that the death penalty is
constitutional, then worked backwards to conclude that there must be a way to
carry it out - even when the method on the table may lead to people being
tortured to death. That's not an easy approach to square with the
Constitution's text. And it's unlikely that a justice who would sign onto this
reasoning would also sign onto an opinion striking down the death penalty in
its entirety.
The times could be changing very soon at the Supreme Court, however. As many as
4 justices could retire in the next president's 1st term. If that president is
not inclined to put more Alitos on the Supreme Court, the death penalty could
be declared cruel and unusual.
(source: thinkprogress.org)
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