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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

TOO DUMB TO DIE

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (motto "Affirming Texas Judges, Y'all") stayed the execution of one James Campbell because the defense uncovered evidence that he has an IQ of 69. Shockingly, the State of Texas tried to keep that information from the defense. Earlier, the same 5th Circuit had denied an appeal based on Texas's method of execution, with the defense arguing that in light of the recent bloody mess in Oklahoma,  a stay was in order. 


The 5th Circuit said this:

“We have been presented with evidence that Campbell, who will soon be executed unless we intervene, may not constitutionally be executed,” wrote Judge James L. Dennis for the court. “It is regrettable that we are now reviewing evidence of intellectual disability at the eleventh hour before Campbell’s scheduled execution,” he wrote. “However, from the record before us, it appears that we cannot fault Campbell or his attorneys, present or past, for the delay.”

So here is the current state of executions in America: 

It's ok for the state to make you suffer when killing you. But it's not constitutional if you're too damn dumb to know what's happening. 

What a great system. 

See you in court. 

Coming soon: "Thus Spake Zarathustra.... and you know who."



26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course Princeton has a law school. Duh!

Anonymous said...

Rumpole - Dearest Esteemed One -

Mental Retardation is a DSM diagnosis which is not synonymous with "Dumb".

I get your point but....

Anonymous said...

Shum sightings. ?? Anyone?

DS said...

This morning I was collaterally involved in a DV incident.
I pulled into the parking lot across the street from our building ( Lot 20 / the SAO parking lot).
I saw a man and a women yelling at each other. The Man hit the lady, then pushed her while shouting profanities. I parked, walked over 20 feet to observe what was next, and hopefully to be a presence that might make him think twice about hitting her again. But, then He choked her , and as she tried to make a call he tried to take her phone or did take her phone.
I walked the 30 feet to the west entrance of the SAO. I asked for an LEO, and told the Security there was a man beating a woman right outside.
My thought was if this guy would hit, beat a lady in the Parking lot of the SAO, across from the Criminal Court- house, he was without restraint and likely dangerous.
I walked out and there was a LEO present. The LEO had come moments after I walked away and was saying to the lady that He ,the LEO, saw her hit the Man in the Face. I told the PO I saw the event and that the Man was Hitting the Lady , that he started this event.
Another LEO was present as Back-up, and asked if I saw it, I said yes , She asked my name and I gave her my card . I attempted to explain what I saw and then the Man said I didn’t see shit and got aggressive. I was asked by the uniform PO to step away, it wasn’t my concern, they had it under control.
Eventually they allowed the Couple to leave to go to court w his arm possessively around her neck in a semi choke hold.
Only in Miami….

Anonymous said...

point well taken

Anonymous said...

I don't know why everyone is complaining? All I need to be happy is bang a cop once in a blue moon and all is well.

Anonymous said...

Princeton law proud grad 1999 here.

Anonymous said...

God, I figured being retarded would actually make the process more humane. Just tell the little waterhead that you're putting magic tickle juice in his veins.

Anonymous said...

DS - why didn't you run over and do something about it? You could have stopped it. Man up!

non-native south floridian said...

WTF is a "Shumie"

Anonymous said...

That is because they were not on duty, but rather collecting 4 hours of overtime for a 15 minute appearance

Happy Guy said...

First Rumpole, let me thank you for giving me the opportunity to express myself. This will probably be my last comment. I have run out of things to say.

Second, I apologize if I steered the discussion off topic or offended anyone.

Third: My whole point was that life seems to have no meaning. We work hard, and it helps maybe us, maybe our family, maybe our family turns on us and when that happens people like me are left with little. Too old to start over, to cranky to really care that much, I was just observing that life is a crap shoot and when it doesn't work out and your find yourself staring at 70 with no one who cares and not a lot to tide you over, you realize all your work was for nothing and now you are destined to work out your life, slaving every day for a few sheckles until you die, or a fate worse than death- you get incapacitated and wither away in some nightmare of a facility while your colleagues never even realize you are gone and your family just looks for the cheapest solution. .

Sure I had some good times. And I am proud of my kids even though they blame me for the divorce and aren't proud of me. But what I am staring at now is a depressing slog with only the grave as the end, nothing to look forward to, and no one to share what was supposed to be my "golden years" with. It sucks. And therefore I find myself consumed with the meaning of it all.

You 25 year old PDs and ASAs don't understand what I am faced with. But your time will come. And I truly hope when it does, life has turned out better for you than it has for me. Nothing is going to happen to me now in the next five or ten years that will change my life or make it better. I will work until I die and that is that. Maybe I can get away to Toronto or Paris or Berlin or Categena for a few weeks every year, but when I go, I will be traveling by myself. No one to share new experiences with. And that sucks. And then I die.

Thanks for the space Rump, In some way you helped me feel better.

Anonymous said...

Cysco Kid feels terrible for happy guy. Happy guy should go on match.com or eharmoney. Don't give up buddy.

REAL FORMER JUDGE said...

2:50pm ... That makes me so sad. I feel your pain. I will pray for you.

"In the end, only KIINDNESS matters" .... From the Jewel song "Hands". It is also the way I want to live my life till my last breath.

God be kind to you ...

Anonymous said...

HG,

Match.com and eharmony are for senior citizens. Go on OkC, that's where all the cool kids are.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kimberlywang/thoughts-every-woman-has-while-browsing-okcupid

Anonymous said...

Happy Guy,

Just go hang out in Brickell for a happy hour and you will find some young chick to entertain you for a night. That usually works

Anonymous said...

No, not God. He's always late to the party.

May the force be with you.

Anonymous said...

Fake real Judge is correct. We are not promised anything and short of illness or some undeserved economic devastation, you are obligated to yourself to make the best of each day, each moment.

Kindness will save you Happy Guy. Looking for fulfillment from others as you have seen, even family, is a desperate attempt to heal deep wounds externally.

Kindness heals from the inside. Take a homeless guy to lunch, flip the cleaning lady a fin, volunteer somewhere, teach children about your insights.

Add a healthy diet and some exercise, stay off the booze (depressant) and rock on.

A man is what he thinketh...be kind, grow a pair, be positive and realize this is your only run. You have no choice but to make the best of it.

Anonymous said...

9:49 THANK YOU, RUMPOLE, shame on you. You know better.

Anonymous said...

Meaning is found in the little things, Happy Guy. And happiness comes from within. Maybe you didn't really do the work on yourself you should have done earlier in life? Either way, I'm old too and I've never been happier. Look to the little things, appreciate what you have, stop living in the past.

Juniper said...

DS and Anonymous at 12:41,

Interfering in an ongoing crime is difficult at best. Most people are not trained to deal with an altercation in progress and most of them last mere seconds. Shouting might help as a distraction but more than that can put the good samaritan and the victim or vicims at great risk. It is very hard to make a decision about this kind of thing in a split second which is all the time there is. I would have trusted my kickboxing coach to do it or maybe an off duty cop or some such, but anyone else maybe not so much. It sounds like DS did what he knew how to do although follow up with the officers involved would be good too. Personally, I have not jumped into any fights, but I've done a lot of shouting.

Rumpole said...

7:10 and 9:49 point well taken. I was going for shock effect. But you both are correct.

Anonymous said...

Hey HG, here is my story. Lawyer. Real nasty divorce. At the time I was 49. Married since 24. We raised three great kids. I refused to pay permanent alimony. In the end I gave her the 1.5 million house in Weston, and $500,000 "Rehabilitative alimony" I had five years to pay it. I paid it off in two so I wouldn't have any contact with her sorry ass.

Went back to working my PI cases real hard tried a few. Had one bad hit- big loss at trial where I had 125K in costs in the case. Kept plugging, my criminal business kept my PI afloat. Finally a few big settlements and a nice big hit at trial and was back in the game. Bought pre-construction two $1million condos in south beach and sold one when it was complete for 1.5 million just a few months ago.

Didn't really date. Kept to myself. Got health. Started meditating. Lost 20 pounds, and lo and behold met this really sweet woman at my Bikri Yoga class. I am now 55, she is 35, we've been dating almost two years, no drama, she is a MD at Mt Sinai, and we have a great time together.

My point is that you can start over. When I first got divorced I was living in some one bedroom piece of shit in North Miami just until I got some money and got back on my feet. I kept my head in the game and I am back and very happy. It all worked out in the end.

Anonymous said...

James is truly great. If u cant see it you are blind.

Anonymous said...

This could likely be an inflammatory comment, and it's not meant to be, but only rather to continue the discussion Rump's post began. Black Americans have an average IQ of 85. Perhaps that is due to the testing mechanisms being discriminatory or some other cause, the source of which is not necessarily relevant.

Average IQ in sub-saharan Africa is just shy of 70.

Point is, no doubt a significant percentage of criminal defendants in Miami Dade have IQs in the "danger zone" so far as the Texas Court is concerned.

We can scoff at the Texas court for the arbitrariness of this ruling, but at least it is taking into account something our own courts are not -- which is that a great number of the guys going to sleep tonight in PTDC and MW and TGK and TT are extremely low functioning, and probably not capable of an acceptable level of understanding of the process they are a part of.

Imagine if the PDO had enough funding to IQ test all of its felony clients? And could use that as mitigation?

If a sub-70 IQ nixes capital punishment, should it be relevant with Min Mans?

Anonymous said...

10:27 Can I suggest you stop relying on Donald Sterling's blog for research purposes? Neither your "foundation" nor your premise have any connection with reality. But thanks for sharing. It reaffirms my belief Sterling represents a frightening percentage of the general population.