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Scalia’s perfect capital-punishment case falls apart

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SlevinKelevra

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Scalia's perfect capital-punishment case falls apart | MSNBC

As regular readers may recall, Scalia specifically pointed to a convicted killer named Henry Lee McCollum as an obvious example of a man who deserved to be put to death. “For example, the case of an 11-year-old girl raped by four men and then killed by stuffing her panties down her throat,” Scalia wrote in a 1994 ruling. “How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that!”

For Scalia, McCollum was the perfect example – a murderer whose actions were so heinous that his crimes stood as a testament to the merit of capital punishment itself.

Yesterday, McCollum was pardoned. Scalia’s perfect example of a man who deserved to be killed by the state was innocent
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Well, there might not be enough eggs in the world to cover that stupid bastard's face right now.
:doh
 
SlevinKelevra said:
Scalia's perfect capital-punishment case falls apart | MSNBC



Well, there might not be enough eggs in the world to cover that stupid bastard's face right now.
:doh
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Here is Scalias entire statement on the matter in full context:

Convictions in opposition to the death penalty are often passionate and deeply held. That would be no excuse for reading them into a Constitution that does not contain them, even if they represented the convictions of a majority of Americans. Much less is there any excuse for using that course to thrust a minority'sviews upon the people. Justice Blackmun begins his statement by describing with poignancy the death of a convicted murderer by lethal injection. He chooses, as the case in which to make that statement, one of the less brutal of the murders that regularly come before us--the murder of a man ripped by a bullet suddenly and unexpectedly, with no opportunity to prepare himself and his affairs, and left to bleed to death on the floor of a tavern. The death by injection which Justice Blackmun describes looks pretty desirable next to that. It looks even better next to some of the other cases currently before us which Justice Blackmun did not select as the vehicle for his announcement that the death penalty is always unconstitutional--for example, the case of the 11-year old girl raped by four men and then killed by stuffing her panties down her throat. See McCollum v. North Carolina, No. 93-7200, cert. now pending before the Court. How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that! If the people conclude that such more brutal deaths may be deterred by capital punishment; indeed, if they merely conclude that justice requires such brutal deaths to be avenged by capital punishment; the creation of false, untextual and unhistorical contradictions within "the Court's Eighth Amendment jurisprudence" should not prevent them.


The one with egg on his face is you.
 
Fletch said:
Here is Scalias entire statement on the matter in full context:

Convictions in opposition to the death penalty are often passionate and deeply held. That would be no excuse for reading them into a Constitution that does not contain them, even if they represented the convictions of a majority of Americans. Much less is there any excuse for using that course to thrust a minority'sviews upon the people. Justice Blackmun begins his statement by describing with poignancy the death of a convicted murderer by lethal injection. He chooses, as the case in which to make that statement, one of the less brutal of the murders that regularly come before us--the murder of a man ripped by a bullet suddenly and unexpectedly, with no opportunity to prepare himself and his affairs, and left to bleed to death on the floor of a tavern. The death by injection which Justice Blackmun describes looks pretty desirable next to that. It looks even better next to some of the other cases currently before us which Justice Blackmun did not select as the vehicle for his announcement that the death penalty is always unconstitutional--for example, the case of the 11-year old girl raped by four men and then killed by stuffing her panties down her throat. See McCollum v. North Carolina, No. 93-7200, cert. now pending before the Court. How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that! If the people conclude that such more brutal deaths may be deterred by capital punishment; indeed, if they merely conclude that justice requires such brutal deaths to be avenged by capital punishment; the creation of false, untextual and unhistorical contradictions within "the Court's Eighth Amendment jurisprudence" should not prevent them.


The one with egg on his face is you.
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He was talking about someone now proven innocent.
SMH.
 
Did you bother to read the article? They're not being pardoned because they are innocent. They are both "mentally disabled" AND there may also have been someone else involved that was never caught. NOWHERE in the article does it say they have been shown to have been innocent. However, now there's not sufficient evidence for a death penalty case, just regular old agg murder where they didn't catch all the perps.
 
SlevinKelevra said:
He was talking about someone now proven innocent.
SMH.
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No, read it again. He was making a comparison between two crimes, not commenting on the guilt or innocence of the people charged.
 
clownboy said:
Did you bother to read the article? They're not being pardoned because they are innocent. They are both "mentally disabled" AND there may also have been someone else involved that was never caught. NOWHERE in the article does it say they have been shown to have been innocent. However, now there's not sufficient evidence for a death penalty case, just regular old agg murder where they didn't catch all the perps.
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Pardon of innocence: This is only granted for those who were convicted but have had the charges subsequently dismissed, usually a wrongful conviction and a declaration that the person is innocent. This is the type received by Henry McCollum and Leon Brown.
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.....
 
Fletch said:
No, read it again. He was making a comparison between two crimes, not commenting on the guilt or innocence of the people charged.
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He was saying the death penalty (lethal injection) was deserved by the party(ies) responsible for the crime. He issued the statement after the men in the OP had been convicted.

Who else would he possibly have been talking about?
 
SlevinKelevra said:
He was saying the death penalty (lethal injection) was deserved by the party(ies) responsible for the crime. He issued the statement after the men in the OP had been convicted.

Who else would he possibly have been talking about?
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You would know if you actually read what he said.
 
...he was talking about the girls death being far worse than being put to a quiet death by lethal injection.
his was an 8th amendment argument.

was he wrong in asserting the girls death was worse than a lethal injection?.. or do you find being gang raped and choked to death as being preferable to lethal injection?
 
Thrilla said:
...he was talking about the girls death being far worse than being put to a quiet death by lethal injection.
his was an 8th amendment argument.

was he wrong in asserting the girls death was worse than a lethal injection?.. or do you find being gang raped and choked to death as being preferable to lethal injection?
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why did he say it was "desirable" then?
 
Yeah, he still deserves it.
 
SlevinKelevra said:
He was talking about someone now proven innocent.
SMH.
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OMG Proven Innocent

that does not happen in a criminal case

at best, what happens is that there was not sufficient evidence (i.e. beyond a reasonable doubt)to find the defendant GUILTY
 
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