Federal Judge Rules California Death Penalty Unconstitutional

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/california-death-penalty_n_5592448.html

[Joe Republic]

Common sense.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Common sense.

[ElectionsGuy]

I can't wait to hear republicans freaking out tomorrow, "activist judges in black robes overrode the will of the people".

[Cory]

Common sense.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I can't wait to hear republicans freaking out tomorrow, "activist judges in black robes overrode the will of the people".

Quite likely, even tho Carney was appointed by Dubya.

Still, I'm dubious this will stand.  While not entirely blameless, a good deal of the delay California has been having in implementing capital punishment is because of various court cases involving not only Federal law, but also State law.  To then use court-imposed delays as a justification for a court to find that California's system is unconstitutional seems highly improper.  At most, I could see specific cases that have been excessively dragged out being struck down by the courts while leaving open the possibility that once the kinks in its system are straightened out, California would be able to resume implementation of the death penalty.  A wholesale striking down of the death penalty for all cases where it currently is under consideration seems like judicial overreach to me.

[MaxQue]

At most, I could see specific cases that have been excessively dragged out being struck down by the courts while leaving open the possibility that once the kinks in its system are straightened out, California would be able to resume implementation of the death penalty.

If that happens, I suspect than some representatives and senators may decide to do like Canada did for abortion. Having the court saying to rewrite the law, but failing to pass another law about it.

Would be de facto abolition, without the negative consequences on them.

[badgate]

I can't wait to hear republicans freaking out tomorrow, "activist judges in black robes overrode the will of the people".

Why do the robes have to be black

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

To put California's death penalty into perspective, here are the pertinent facts.

• There are 742 inmates currently on California's death row.
• There have only been 13 executions since 1992, and no inmate has been executed since 2006.
• The petitioner in this case has been on death row for 19 years.

California's penal system is an uneven, overcrowded mess and arguably one of the worst in the country. The possibility of the state "getting the kinks in its system straightened out" without the courts demanding it are about as close to 0 as you could possibly get.

[Simfan34]

Why does California still have the death penalty?

[Flake]

Why does California still have the death penalty?

Why does any state have the death penalty? 

[H. Ross Peron]

Common sense.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Great!

[Iosif]

Is America set to join the rest of the civilised world???

5 decades too late.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

It they would have had weekly executions to clean out the system, this ruling probably wouldn't happen.  Shame.

[AggregateDemand]

Is America set to join the rest of the civilised world???

5 decades too late.

Most of the people on death row have thrown away their right to life by perpetrating heinous, uncivilized crimes. Civil treatment of prisoners is not really the issue.

Outlawing capital punishment is a matter of libertarian civics or Christian ethics.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Common sense.

This, although the Supreme Court will obviously rule that every states' death penalty is constitutional and that any efforts by states to prohibit it are inherently unconstitutional when it next hears a case tangentially involving anything even remotely related to death penalty

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

To put California's death penalty into perspective, here are the pertinent facts.

• There are 742 inmates currently on California's death row.
• There have only been 13 executions since 1992, and no inmate has been executed since 2006.
• The petitioner in this case has been on death row for 19 years.

California's penal system is an uneven, overcrowded mess and arguably one of the worst in the country. The possibility of the state "getting the kinks in its system straightened out" without the courts demanding it are about as close to 0 as you could possibly get.

The principal reason that is the case is because of various court imposed moratoriums to resolve specific issues, that I agree needed to be resolved.  But for a court to then say as it has in this case, you're taking too long, therefore we're going to not allow you to use capital punishment at all is absolutely ridiculous.  I can see a court saying, you've taken too long to resolve those issues in these particular cases, therefore you've lost the chance to use capital punishment in them, but once you've gotten your act together, you can go forward.

Yeah, California doesn't seem likely to much to resolve them any time soon, especially if anti-justice forces who can't get a repeal of just retribution thru the legislature need only block efforts to implement justice to get a de facto repeal.

Incidentally, just to be clear, the ridiculous amount of time between passing sentence and executing sentence in capital cases in the US is the principal reason I'm in favor of scrapping capital punishment here.  I favor having capital punishment available as an option in the abstract, but our current system is broken, and not just in California.  I just find the reasoning used here to justify a judicial end to the death penalty in California to be detrimental to the good functioning of a republic.

[Franzl]

Is America set to join the rest of the civilised world???

5 decades too late.

Getting close at least. Hell will freeze over before certain states join the club, though.

[IceSpear]

Is America set to join the rest of the civilised world???

5 decades too late.

Didn't Breivik get about 20 years paid vacation in a comfortable and well furnished "cell"? Perhaps America is better off not joining this.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Is America set to join the rest of the civilised world???

5 decades too late.

Didn't Breivik get about 20 years paid vacation in a comfortable and well furnished "cell"? Perhaps America is better off not joining this.

Yeah right, we should barbarically and painfully murder dozens of people (a good share of which end up being innocent) each years just so we can have our little vengeance against one person. That's definitely the right way to settle public policy issues.

[Franzl]

Is America set to join the rest of the civilised world???

5 decades too late.

Didn't Breivik get about 20 years paid vacation in a comfortable and well furnished "cell"? Perhaps America is better off not joining this.

Yeah right, we should barbarically and painfully murder dozens of people (a good share of which end up being innocent) each years just so we can have our little vengeance against one person. That's definitely the right way to settle public policy issues.

That is the basis for (a lot of) American thinking on criminal justice.

[IceSpear]

Is America set to join the rest of the civilised world???

5 decades too late.

Didn't Breivik get about 20 years paid vacation in a comfortable and well furnished "cell"? Perhaps America is better off not joining this.

Yeah right, we should barbarically and painfully murder dozens of people (a good share of which end up being innocent) each years just so we can have our little vengeance against one person. That's definitely the right way to settle public policy issues.

Not that the American justice system is perfect (or anywhere close to it), but I'm pretty sure most normal people would find mass murderers and terrorists living a life of luxury for a couple decades in exchange for their crimes to be completely repugnant.

[MaxQue]

Is America set to join the rest of the civilised world???

5 decades too late.

Didn't Breivik get about 20 years paid vacation in a comfortable and well furnished "cell"? Perhaps America is better off not joining this.

Yeah right, we should barbarically and painfully murder dozens of people (a good share of which end up being innocent) each years just so we can have our little vengeance against one person. That's definitely the right way to settle public policy issues.

Not that the American justice system is perfect (or anywhere close to it), but I'm pretty sure most normal people would find mass murderers and terrorists living a life of luxury for a couple decades in exchange for their crimes to be completely repugnant.

It's a principle question for us. State shouldn't play to God, State shouldn't execute people.

Sure, you're free to handpick one extreme case, but I'm sure than we can find tens of cases where an innocent in USA was executed, which is the other extreme.

[they don't love you like i love you]

It's a false dichotomy anyway. It's not like all the states without the death penalty let people convicted of murder out in 10 years.