Good news from the Supreme Court for a change. America may be entering into the community of civilized countries…Though it’s been a long and slow process, and we’ve still got a ways to go.
The 5-to-4 decision, arising from a Missouri case, holds that executing young killers violates “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society,” and that American society has come to regard juveniles as less culpable than adult criminals.
The ruling, which acknowledged “the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty,” erases the death sentences imposed on about 70 defendants who were juveniles at the time they killed. Although 19 states nominally permit the execution of juvenile murderers, only Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma have executed any in the past decade.
Well, good for us. For once.
And on “International Death Penalty Abolition Day” of all days! Details on that and more at fine organizations here and here.
I am always amazed when this particular Supreme Court manages to do the right thing.
If only they had ruled correctly on Gore vs Boosh……..
Terri…Gore v. Bush was decided before arguments were heard, making it a political decision, not a legal one. Scalia gave a news briefing on a Saturday (the court was to hear the lawyers speak the following Monday) in which he announced what the final vote would be, 5-4 to overturn the Florida Supreme Court and deny a recount. The legal issues were irrelevant. I would have voted to impeach Scalia for failing to uphold his sworn duty and reserve judgment until arguments were heard.
The death penalty ruling will further isolate Texas as a state that practices Wild West justice. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.
I saw a quasi-debate between Scalia and Kennedy concerning the issue of taking into consideration the social concerns and ideas of the rest of the world. That issue is woven thru the fabric of this opinion.
In that debate Kennedy intimated that we are neighbors in a world community and need to notice that we have neighbors and their feelings and thoughts ought to be considered.
Scalia ranted his same old ideology of anti-social selfishness the current administration is preaching at the end of a gun.
Thankfully sanity prevailed.
In another case which is contrary to neocon ideology a Federal District Court has ruled that the president does not have the authority to hold a citizen within the United States who is not actually in combat to be an "enemy combatant". (decision here).
The government doesn’t even claim these people are combatants. They don’t claim anything, in fact. They’ll hold them as long as they see fit, without offering them access to an attorney and without charging them with anything. They don’t distinguish between real suspects and innocent people who might happen to know something they can be tortured to reveal.
This is martial law, I believe, except without a suspension of habeus corpus, certiorari, mandamus and other writs I don’t really understand. It looks as if we’re going to have a turf war between the executive and judicial branches of government, because Bush et al. are appealing the ruling, and aren’t likely to obey the court if they lose.
If we go on the premise that the juvenile death penalty is unconstitutional, then what about the "mentally challenged" people whose IQ’s are that of a child? Why are these people still being put to death? Just because they are of a physical age of 18 years or older does not necessarily mean they are any more mentally developed than a juvenile.
For every step taken forward, many more lie ahead….
#5, …many more steps ahead…
Just one. No death penalty whatsoever. End of problem.
No death penalty whatsoever? What a concept!
If we stopped executing guilty people here, we might have to stop executing innocent people elsewhere.
Winter P #7 –
Not a chance. They’re not really "people," remember. But a nice thought just the same.
We’ve finally caught up to such civilized countries as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. I feel proud to be ‘Murikan today.
Glory be! What a day!
The government is not going to be murdering children in our own country!
Brett #5
I may be wrong, but I thought I heard on NPR’s Supreme Court coverage yesterday that the retarded/mentally disabled were no longer executed in the U.S. by way of a previous Supreme Court decision.
It is amazing and sickening to know that this country was the last in the world to sanction the killing of children. For me the death penalty is a deeply complicated issue but…….
just having the possibility that innocent people would be put to death by error is the only reason I need to advocate abolishing it, and innocents have been put to death in the past.
One more thing……Scalia is a Nazi scumbag.