Nothing Wrong With Executing the Innocent - Justice Scalia

by: admin

Share |

Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 21:27:13 PM CDT

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a rare innocence claim hearing in the Troy Anthony Davis case .  

Davis was convicted in 1991 of murdering an off-duty Savannah police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail, in 1989.  Since his trial, Davis has claimed, seven of the state of Georgia's key witneeses have recanted the testimony they gave at the trial.  Several other individuals have implicated another man - the prosecution's key witness against Davis - as the shooter.

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

In Scalia's world it does not matter when a person is found to be innocent. The constitution is once again thrown out the window and stomped upon by one who is suppose to be a "wise conservative". Scalia argues past procedure weight over the result of an innocent man being put to death.

The seven justices in the majority rightfully recognized that extraordinary cases require extraordinary orders even if they have not been used in nearly half a centurty. As the public concerned in our most basic and fundamental constitutional rights we should be outraged with this dissent. But then again we shall be so lucky that even on this court it is not the majority opinion but rather a lone wolf dissent.

I leave you with one of my favorite anti-death penalty quotes.

The great Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once said

"The question with which we must deal is not whether a substantial proportion of American citizens would today, if polled, opine that capital punishment is barbarously cruel, but whether they would find it to be so in light of all information presently available."