The Supreme[ly] "Whimsical" Court:
The Rehnquist Court may have been conservative, but at least it was consistent. Linda Greenhouse, perhaps the most knowledgeable observer of the Supreme Court America has ever had, discusses the whimsical approach the Alito Court takes in the most serious cases it will review: those which determine whether a citizen should be stripped of every right he or she has and to be put to death.
Without explanation, the Alito Court is allowing some defendants' death sentences to be carried out while others are commuted when the circumstances and rational are as nearly identical as can exist.
Apparently, the sole rational for commuting one death row inmate's sentence was to appeal to right wing veterans' groups, while refusing to commute the other inmate's sentence was to appeal to right wing political groups who demanded it be carried out.
The Rehnquist Court may have been conservative, but at least it was consistent. Linda Greenhouse, perhaps the most knowledgeable observer of the Supreme Court America has ever had, discusses the whimsical approach the Alito Court takes in the most serious cases it will review: those which determine whether a citizen should be stripped of every right he or she has and to be put to death.
Without explanation, the Alito Court is allowing some defendants' death sentences to be carried out while others are commuted when the circumstances and rational are as nearly identical as can exist.
Apparently, the sole rational for commuting one death row inmate's sentence was to appeal to right wing veterans' groups, while refusing to commute the other inmate's sentence was to appeal to right wing political groups who demanded it be carried out.
Labels: Death Penalty
posted by Jim | 9:59 AM
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