One step forward for civilization
With yesterday's Supreme Court ruling that it's unconstitutional to execute minors, we come one step closer to eliminating a practice that should have been ended long ago.
With most public policy issues, I feel that good people can disagree, and that powerful arguments can be made on either side of an issue. This is one area where I don't. Governments should not execute their own citizens. Some killing is defensive; some is vengeful; and some is sadistic. None of those are appropriate within our criminal justice system. People do horrible things to each other, and that should be punished, but not by having the government do horrible things back.
Kudos to Justice Kennedy for joining--and writing for--the majority in this case. Boos to Justices Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist, and especially O'Connor, who wrote the minority opinion, and who should know better.
1 Comments:
Traci, While I am troubled by the death penalty I am more troubled by the courts violation of 19 states' rights by citing specious constitutional reasoning and confirmation via "The overwhelming weight of international opinion".
This case comes down to the question of whether or not the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment for someone who committed the crime under the age of 18. The court made a moral decision, not a legal one.
The Sanford case in 89 was in my home town, and the will of the people of Kentucky which was upheld by the Supreme Court was that he should be put to death for his crimes. That a national consensus against such a thing has formed in 15 years is a bit of a stretch but to further opine that the meaning of the 8th amendment has changed in that time is even more wrong.
While I have no personal problem with the net effect of the decision I have a big problem with the court reasoning. Our constitution is the only thing that matters, not emerging national trends or international opinions. If we head down that slope we ought to just tear up the original and meet every few years to figure out what is in style.
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