Supreme Court Justice Strongly Criticizes Capital Punishment System

[cal04]

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens issued an unusually stinging criticism of capital punishment Saturday evening, telling lawyers that he was disturbed by "serious flaws." Stevens stopped short of calling for an end to the death penalty, but said that there are many problems in the way it is used.

Recent exonerations of death row inmates through scientific evidence is significant, he told the American Bar Association, "not only because of its relevance to the debate about the wisdom of continuing to administer capital punishment but also because it indicates that there must be serious flaws in our administration of criminal justice."

Other justices, including Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, have also spoken out about concerns that defendants in murder cases are not adequately represented at trial. But Stevens, 85, said the problems were broader than that.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB7A4KP2CE.html

[mcctatas]

1. "serious flaws" but he stopped short of calling for an end to the death

penalty??? I bet if the system in question disproportionately affected white country club brats, even minor flaws would not be tolerated.

[wli]

2. 98% of prisoners in NY are in Republican Senate districts

And while prisoners are disenfranchised from voting, they do contribute to electoral shares.

[Joebert]

11. That's very interesting.

Do you have a link to something that has that in writing?

How we continue to have these double-standards, I'll never understand.

[AirAmFan]

13. AMAZING! A little googling took me to the apparent source. No wonder

NYS has gone from Cuomo to Pataki and NYC from Dinkins to Bloomberg. Not only does enormously expanded incarceration increase representation upstate, it diminishes it in NYC 66/91 sts for one, according to http://www.prisonpolicy.org/importing/further.shtml --

"Almost 30 percent of new residents who came to Upstate New York in the 1990s didn't make the trip by choice, and they didn't move into subdivisions or houses on secluded cul-de-sacs. They were inmates making their new homes in prison cells, according to a new report on population trends in upstate.<2>"

-- and, from http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/fact-17-1-2005.shtml :

"Home Page > Analysis > Fact of the Week > 98% of New York's prison cells are in disproportionately White Senate districts...

Posted on January 17, 2005

Sixty-six percent of the New York State's prisoners come from New York City, but 91% of the state's prison cells are located in the upstate region.... Even more critical is how this impacts the political power of Blacks and Latinos in the state compared to Whites. New York State is 62% White, but 82% of the state's prison population is Black or Latino. Virtually all -- 98% -- of the prison cells are located in state Senate districts that are disproportionately White for the state.

Prisoners of the Census is a project of the Prison Policy Initiative. The primary author is Soros Justice Fellow Peter Wagner"

[ShockediSay]

3. Death Penalty Violates Due Process

It's as simple as that.

[shraby]

5. Death penalty violates cruel and unusual punishment.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. I can't remember if he was on the Court when

it outlawed capital punishment back in the seventies. But I think he was. Yet it came back. . .

[Pirate Smile]

6. AP: Justice Stevens Criticizes Death Penalty

Justice Stevens Criticizes Death Penalty

By GINA HOLLAND
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 7, 2005; 12:43 AM

CHICAGO -- Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens issued an unusually stinging criticism of capital punishment Saturday evening, telling lawyers that he was disturbed by "serious flaws."

Stevens stopped short of calling for an end to the death penalty, but he said there are many problems in the way it is used.


U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens delivers the keynote address at the American Bar Association's 2005 Thurgood Marshall Awards Dinner in Chicago on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2005. (AP Photo/Aynsley Floyd) (Aynsley Floyd - AP)

Recent exonerations of death row inmates through scientific evidence are significant, he told the American Bar Association, "not only because of its relevance to the debate about the wisdom of continuing to administer capital punishment, but also because it indicates that there must be serious flaws in our administration of criminal justice."

Other Supreme Court justices, including Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, have also spoken out about concerns that defendants in murder cases are not adequately represented at trial.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/06/AR2005080601483.html

[JDPriestly]

7. I wonder where that good Catholic, John Roberts,

stands on this issue. After all, isn't the Catholic Church as vehemently opposed to the death penalty as it is to abortion? Let's hope his Catholic values are not too politically correct to reflect the Church's views on the death penalty.

[Ms. Toad]

12. It is generally opposed,

but the position is not as absolute - and lots of Catholics I know support the death penalty and war (both when "necessary" only), but oppose abortion.

Disclaimer - I'm not Catholic, but am married to one who describes herself as a recovering Catholic and I have had many heated discussions with in laws over how it is possible to be opposed to abortion because it terminates life - and still support war and the death penalty.

[oscarmitre]

8. Good for him

Get rid of it.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Stevens Focuses on Death Penalty Flaws

Stevens Focuses on Death Penalty Flaws
By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

Sunday, August 7, 2005

(08-07) 12:07 PDT Chicago (AP) --

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens steered the debate over President Bush's nominee to a new subject: capital punishment, sharply condemning the country's death penalty system.

The court has been closely divided in death row cases, with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor often in the middle.

President Bush's choice to replace her, John Roberts, has a limited track record. Roberts, 50, showed little sympathy for prisoner appeals as a government lawyer in the Reagan administration, but later did free legal work for a death row inmate.

Stevens used a weekend speech to the American Bar Association to underscore the matter's prominence at the court, noting evidence of "serious flaws."
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/07/national/w120758D23.DTL

[HockeyMom]

10. Dead is irreversible

That IS the major flaw.