[Photo from Bilerico.com]This from an article by Vincent Rossmeier (the War Room), at Salon.com, August 18, 2009.
Troy Davis is an inmate on death row in the state of Georgia. Davis' attorney filed "an original writ of habeas corpus, which skips the lower courts and goes directly to the Supreme Court. As Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out in a dissent he wrote against Monday's decision, the Court has not made such a ruling 'in nearly 50 years.'"
Except, it appears that there might be evidence which would exonerate Mr. Davis; evidence which was not available at the trial. Such notables as Pope Benedict, former President Carter and Desmond Tutu have supported a new look at the evidence.
Thus, to avoid "The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death," the Supremes ruled that a federal trial court should review the case, look at the evidence and determine whether this new evidence would establish Davis' innocence.
On the Supremes, there was one man, a Roman Catholic rightwingnut christianist by name of Antonin Scalia who "vehemently disagreed." Yes, he did. Vehemently. In fact, it would appear he does give a damn whether Davis is innocent or guilty! He wrote,
"This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent." According to Mr. Rossmeier, Scalia "also said that Davis' appeal would be 'a sure loser' once it was examined again."
In other words, to hell with the truth.
Maybe Davis didn't really have a "full and fair trial". We've all heard stories about crooked cops, crooked or incompetent prosecutors, lawyers and judges. We know many innocent people are put to death in our killing states (like Texas) every year. That doesn't bother good ol' Roman Catholic Scalia! Go ahead, put him to death! If he's actually innocent, so what? We wouldn't want to do something that the Court has never done before!
Stoopids are also found on the U.S. Supreme Court!
2 comments:
I assume Scalia goes to Mass and confession and is satisfied he is doing God's work.
It only took the up close involvement of one criminal case for me to forever distrust the US Court system. I think it was set up with beautiful and honorable intentions, but it's evolved into nothing more than a cash cow.
Still, I'd love to see some of these repugs go through the experience.
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