Chipping Away At It

Like water on a rock, only faster.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.
The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling continues the court's practice of narrowing the scope of the death penalty, which justices reinstated in 1976. The court in 1988 outlawed executions for those 15 and younger when they committed their crimes.

What if these guys hadn’t killed themselves, submitting themselves to an infinitely harsher judge than exists on Earth?

What about this guy who is already up against a couple of life sentences in Virginia, but could have faced the death penalty after a third trial if a jury had deemed him guilty? (Not going to happen now.)

Do certain members of the SCOTUS think that such creatures can’t know right from wrong before that magical eighteenth birthday? I don’t know about you, but I knew well enough that shooting up the school or lying in wait to pick off various members of my community wasn’t a good thing to do long before I turned eighteen.

"The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.

Interesting that some believe that a twelve-year-old “woman” has the "maturity" to abort a baby without her parents’ knowledge or consent (don't know the court's history on this), but when the victim changes, the perpetrator suddenly becomes a child, in spite of the fact that he/she has the "maturity" to plan and execute the mowing down of classmates or fellow citizens.

Drip, drip, drip.

UPDATE: And, right on cue, some poor little darling (allegedly) caps a bus driver in Tennessee.

CUMBERLAND CITY, Tenn. (AP) - A school bus driver was shot to death as she drove her route Wednesday morning and a male student was taken into custody, authorities said. No students were hurt.[SNIP]

Mitchell Kern, a neighbor who graduated from high school last year, said the student who was taken into custody is 15 years old

Comments

[DarkStar]

Given that mistakes are made in the justice system.

I don't understand how, intellectually, anyone can support the death penalty and take the risk that an "innocent" person is killed for something they did not do.

In Maryland, a man was convicted to die for "raping and killing a child." It turned out that DNA proved he didn't do it. He was released.

Good, right?

He was raped in jail and contracted HIV because of it.

An innocent man.

[baldilocks]

This man has a case against the state he was convicted in, for sure. But, unfortunately for him, the past cannot be changed.

Because of the type of instances exemplified by the one that you cited here, Darkstar, I was ambivalent about the death penalty for years. I think that the mandatory various appeals that follow death penalty verdicts stem from a similar ambivalence. Additionally, as we know, many have been railroaded into the electric chair/gas chamber because of their race and the race of the “victim.” (One of my uncles was executed for killing a white man in the fifties, though it was a clear case of self-defense. The state? Arkansas.)

But it isn’t 1955 anymore. As you noted, DNA has become a reliable tool in determining guilt and innocence. I am ambivalent no longer.

[DarkStar]

The Commonwealth of Virginia is trying to rig the system by allowing only 14 days after a guilty verdict to appeal a conviction.

After that, no appeals can be made and all evidence can be destroyed.

Two years ago or last year, in a Virginia county, prosecutors appealed to have evidence destroyed. The judge, for some reason, took the evidence before the hearing of the appeal.

The defense contended the man was innocent of the crime for which he was given the death sentence. The judge decided to have the evidence tested. It turned out that the man was innocent. The prosecution TO THIS DAY contends the man, who is retarded, is guilty.

This took at least 10 years to wind through the system.

Meanwhile, Virginia wants to destroy evidence after the 14 day appeal period has lapsed.

To end this, Virginia pays defense attorney's the least amount of money in the U.S.

Then there is Texas that has an appeal system that does not require the panel to hear the appeal. And the Texas system believes that it is fine for judge to fall asleep during the trial and still get a fair hearing.

[DarkStar]

No, this isn't 1955.

And if anyone responds by saying "How would you feel if a family member....". My family has had 3 people murdered. One was close to me. And I still feel the same.

[Xrlq]

He was raped in jail and contracted HIV because of it.

An innocent man.

Which has what, exactly, to do with extending the death penalty to juveniles? Last time I heard, non-death row inmates sometimes get raped, too.

[DarkStar]

Which has what, exactly, to do with extending the death penalty to juveniles?

I stated at first that I don't understand how there can be support for the death penalty, as currently enacted.

[jeff]

So now courts can't use their discretion in applying the death penalty to despicable killers? Beautiful. Too bad these killers didn't videotape their torture murders, we could force Ruth Ginsberg to watch them over & over. Oh wait, that would be cruel!

[ben]

"Too bad these killers didn't videotape their torture murders, we could force Ruth Ginsberg to watch them over & over. Oh wait, that would be cruel!"

Wow, Jeff. You're a voice of reason in an otherwise unreasonable world.

[ben]

To hear apparently intelligent people (except for Jeff) arguing so passionately for the right to have someone killed, is quite sad.