Kennedy’s 36 pages of insufferable blather amount to little more than a declaration that the majority doesn’t think that capital punishment is ever a fair penalty for the rape of a child—“no matter,” as Justice Alito puts it in his dissent, “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 the crime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be.”
I'm no attorney, but I seem to know the constitution better than Kennedy does.
The quote in the opinion that most frustrates me is Kennedy's assertion of “Evolving standards of decency....".
First, the constitution has a remedy for “Evolving standards of decency...", it's called an amendment. For instance, the citizenry's decided it was indecent to ask 18 year olds to die for their country yet not to be allowed to vote; hence, the 26th amendment.
Second, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the jury that voted 12-0 for a death sentence and the trial judge who agreed with it have an understanding of “Evolving standards of decency..." ie they probably would not have voted for a death sentence for someone stealing a horse.
But Kennedy, decided to ignore the jurors and judge who heard the testimony and decided that his “Evolving standards of decency..." usurped the people closest to the case.
Apparently, no one sent the memo to the 13 people who decided on a death sentence that “Evolving standards of decency" had changed as soon as Kennedy was appointed to the bench. I'm also guessing that none of those folks get a say on those “Evolving standards of decency".
The United States Supreme Court.... Yep, we're the same douche bags who brought you Dred Scott, Plessy v Ferguson, Kelo v. City of New London and Roe v. Wade.
No comments:
Post a Comment