It's the official start of Summer with the Memorial Day Weekend holiday about to begin.
Reminder: No court Monday.
And along with summer comes the summer dress code where the need for gentlemen attorneys to clothe themselves in an overcoat and tie on a sweltering hot day……never mind.
When is this madness going to stop???
We've had the hottest twelve month on record (source: NASA, that liberal, tax and spend Clinton/Democratic failed bureaucracy), we are going to be entering days in the 90s with 95% humidity and yet a male lawyer has to wear a long sleeve shirt, a tie, and a jacket. It is madness.
The Death of The Death Penalty:
Speaking of madness, conservative columnist George Will declared the death of the death penalty in this Washington Post column here.
The conservative case against capital punishment, which 32 states have, is threefold. First, the power to inflict death cloaks government with a majesty and pretense of infallibility discordant with conservatism. Second, when capital punishment is inflicted, it cannot later be corrected because of new evidence, so a capital punishment regime must be administered with extraordinary competence. It is, however, a government program. Since 1973, more than 140 people sentenced to death have been acquitted of their crimes (sometimes by DNA evidence), had the charges against them dismissed by prosecutors or have been pardoned based on evidence of innocence.
Several people emailed us this blog post, by an REGJB regular, about his recent and somewhat unique experience with the death penalty.
Enjoy your long weekend. Summer's here.
When you see something that is not right, not fair, find a way to get in the way and cause trouble. Congressman John Lewis
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14 comments:
Nebraska's legislature has now passed a bill banning the death penalty. People are starting to realize that, as Gerald Kogan said almost 20 years ago: "Death does not work."
We should adopt key west's dress code in summer.
http://www.siliconbeat.com/2015/05/21/florida-says-uber-driver-is-employee-not-contractor/
How many times does the Third have to tell Judge Glick not to hold people without bond when they oversleep and miss court???????????? Buy a clue Judge Glick, they cited to your own case from less than a year ago!!!!!
http://www.3dca.flcourts.org/opinions/3D15-1113.pdf
Migna no like trial
What time are we having lunch?
I'm going fed'ral
What is key west summer dress code?
Personally, it's not a big deal to wear a suit in an air conditioned car then walk 30 yards to an air conditioned building, then change into casual clothes in my air conditioned office.
If court was held outside I'd prefer short sleeves.
But global warming is a lie.......
And oh, by the way, a female police officer was killed serving a warrant on the same day she was picking up her premature newborn baby from the hospital to go home. It will be interesting to see who the warrant was being served on. But even MORE interesting is that this is not being prominently reported on by the news, not a focus on the talk shows, not being discussed much at all. Including here........
It's disgusting...............
If you cant wear a suit and tie for an air conditioned court appearance perhaps you can try being a roofer in the summer heat.
George Will is wrong on all points.
The first.
No one has ever claimed perfection with the death penalty, nor any other government program.
What Mr. Will avoided is that there are no known innocents executed since, at least, the 1930's.
Innocents are better protected, in three ways, with the death penalty, than by Life Without Parole(LWOP). (see Will's second point, below)
Did Mr. Will consider:
Since 1973, our criminal justice system has allowed about 14,000 innocents to be murdered by those murderers we have allowed to murder, again - recidivist murderers.
Since 1973, our criminal justice system has allowed about 200,000 innocents to be murdered by repeat criminals we have released or never locked up.
Mr. Will, consider reality and degree.
The Death Penalty: Do Innocents Matter? A Review of All Innocence Issues
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-death-penalty-do-innocents-matter.html
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Mr. Will is wrong on all points.
The second.
He writes: "Second, when capital punishment is inflicted, it cannot later be corrected because of new evidence."
True, but not persuasive, nor complete. See Rebuttal to Will's first point, above.
5000 die in US confinement per year. None can be corrected by new evidence. Should we end all confinement?
We execute about 33 murderers per year.
INNOCENTS ARE BETTER PROTECTED BY THE DEATH PENALTY
The death penalty protects innocents, in three ways, better than does life without parole (LWOP): enhanced due process, enhanced incapacitation and enhanced deterrence;
a) Enhanced due process - No knowledgeable, honest party disputes that the death penalty has the greatest of due process protections (1), what the US Supreme Court has called "super due process", meaning that actual innocents sentenced to LWOP are more likely to die as innocents in prison, than are innocents likely to be executed.
b) Enhanced incapacitation - Living murderers are, infinitely, more likely to harm and murder, again, than are executed murderers - a truism.
c) Enhanced deterrence - The evidence that some potential murderers are deterred, by the death penalty/execution, is overwhelming (2). The evidence that none are deterred by the death penalty/execution is non existent (2). The only honest disputes are if the death penalty is a greater deterrent than LWOP - the evidence says yes (2) - and how much does the death penalty deter? - a question that will never be answered to any consensus (2).
more:
The Death Penalty: Do Innocents Matter? A Review of All Innocence Issues
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-death-penalty-do-innocents-matter.html
Excruciatingly Long Appeals
Mr. Will:
The extended period of time for appeals is not the fault of the death penalty, but of those who interfere with its use, judges and legislators.
Those are the two groups guilty of causing additional harm to those murder victim survivors, by unnecessarily prolonged appeals. Blame them.
Such is a concern for the US Supreme Court, as well as all of us, when there are judges who are acting as dictators in robes, standing in opposition to capital punishment, by causing incredible delays in carrying out the law, intentionally making it a disaster.
In the modern death penalty era, post Gregg V Georgia (1976).
Virginia's first 108 executions occurred within 7.1 years of appeals, on average.
Pennsylvania judges only allow "volunteers" to be executed. If you don't waive appeals, you will never be executed. 3 executions.
Texas has executed over 500 murderers, within a 10 year average of appeals.
New Jersey judges would not allow any executions.
California can take 5 years to appoint counsel in death penalty cases.
Nevada's first 10 executions occurred within 5 years of appeals, on average.
Is there any rational or legal reason that appeals need take longer than 9-10 years, on average? No.
It's not the death penalties fault it takes longer. Blame those responsible and FIX THEM.
Aren't conservatives (as all) supposed to complain about over reaching judges and legislators bent upon causing chaos?
Judges Responsible For Grossly Uneven Executions
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/judges-responsible-for-grossly-uneven.html
Mr. Will, only, referred you to an anti death penalty book.
I refer you to the two best books, that I know of, for an even and balanced review of the death penalty.
The Death Penalty: For and Against, by Jeffrey Reiman and Louis P. Pojman, (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997)
Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment? The Experts on Both Sides Make Their Case, edited by Hugo Adam Bedau and Paul Cassell, who are also included authors. (Oxford U Press, 2004)
NOTE:
The Opposing Viewpoints Series on the death penalty/capital punishment has, over decades, provided the best, most evenly balanced reviews of this debate. They are not at the academic level of the two above, but they always present an excellent review of both sides.
Publishers Greenhaven Press and/or Gale.
======
Mr. Will:
Did you fact check: “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson?
Stevenson has been an active anti death penalty person for decades.
For some additional perspective, in additon to the three references, just above.
The Death of Punishment, Robert Blecker, Macmillan, 2014
Guilty: The Collapse of Criminal Justice, by Judge Harold J. Rothwax, Random House, 1996
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Look at Will's last sentence:
"Capital punishment, say proponents, serves social catharsis. But administering it behind prison walls indicates a healthy squeamishness that should herald abolition."
Mr. Will is dead wrong.
As history details, and is well known, folks were not at all squeamish about attending executions. The opposite was the case. They attended in large numbers and, possibly, were not squeamish enough.
But, let's look at Mr. Will's false narrative, by reason, by using incarceration:
"Locking up criminals, say proponents, serves social catharsis. But administering it behind prison walls indicates a healthy squeamishness that should herald abolition."
Yep, let's end incarceration, because we "administer it behind prison walls, which indicates a healthy squeamishness that should herald abolition."
Well, no.
Mr. Will may be unaware, but executions, are by far, our most public sanction, always covered by the media, always reported in the paper, always with multiple witnesses, unlike the overwhelming majority of other sanctions, for which it is extraordinarily rare to follow individual cases in a manner approaching every death penalty case.
There is simply no comparison.
Good point
Some poor bastard in,of course, Texas was executed for burning his family to death. The evidence was expert forensic fire. It was mumbo and now it is established that he was innocent and executed. While Dudleys argument is well presented Texas
removed a substantial plank.
Here is an odd fact, the three states with the lowest murder rate, per capita, do not have the death penalty.
Maybe states that kill people send the message that killing people is OK, and thus, the death penalty encourages people to kill each other. After all, if the government does it, how bad can it be?
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/murder-rates-nationally-and-state#MRord
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