The word deadline finds it origins in the American lexicon as the line around prison camp during the Civil War that if crossed by a prisoner, allowed the guards to shoot the prisoner for attempting to escape. Nowadays, it means something completely different, and usually much more innocuous. Except in this case:
Though the Supreme Court has prohibited the execution of the mentally retarded, a Texas death row inmate who may be retarded cannot raise the issue in federal court because his lawyer missed a filing deadline, a federal appeals court ruled this week.
The inmate, Marvin Lee Wilson, has “made a prima facie showing of mental retardation,” a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrote in an unsigned decision on Tuesday, meaning the court presumed Mr. Wilson to be retarded for purposes of its ruling.
But the panel said it was powerless to consider the case because Mr. Wilson’s lawyer filed papers concerning his retardation in a federal trial court without first obtaining required permission from the appeals court, which he did not seek until a deadline had expired.
“However harsh the result may be,” the panel said, its hands are tied by deadlines established in a 1996 federal law, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The same law now forbids Mr. Wilson, convicted of killing a police informant, to appeal the Fifth Circuit’s ruling to the Supreme Court.
Yeah. That makes sense.
The death penalty has just got to go. And why is it always Texas, or Alabama, or Mississippi?
*** Update ***
Even more reasons to end the death penalty.
Shygetz
Now I know why I’m not a lawyer. How the hell can a statute forbid a review by the Supreme Court? I thought the Supreme Court could decide for itself what it would and would not review.
CaseyL
Shygetz, you must’ve missed the death penalty case the SCOTUS reviewed a few years back, when it decided that evidence of innocence wasn’t sufficient to stop an execution – because, IIRC, new evidence wasn’t within he SCOTUS’ purview. That would’ve made some kind of sense if they’d remanded the case to a new trial, but they didn’t do that either.
And just think how much more persnickety about reviewing death penalty cases the SCOTUS will be if Alioto is confirmed. He’s a big fan of the death penalty, and an even bigger fan of police powers.
Shygetz
How the hell is it not “cruel and unusual punishment” to kill a man who is factually innocent? Law is a dumb game.
Steve S
These states are a national disgrace.
Is it possible for us to force them out of the Union?
Paddy O'Shea
Quiz question:
Which former state governor holds the U.S. record for most executions during his time on office?
(Hint: He has often described himself as being “compassionate.”)
Steve S
HOLY CRAP!
The Republicans are French?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10501530/
Doesn’t that sound like something the Republicans would pass?
guyermo
Why is it Texas Alabama, and Mississippi? Because they are the most devout, religious, conservative, “compassionate conservative” Republicans.
Brian
I’m not following you, John. Yes, this guy’s case is an abortion of judicial competence, but is it the argument to use to support complete repeal of the death penalty?
I made a powerful case in an earlier Tookie thread as to why the DP is worth having, and that not having it is an affront to all law-abiding citizens and to the concept of a decent society.
Here in California, we do it right, so maybe it can be modeled after our state’s approach. Tookie was guilty and deserved his punishment, and we have a couple other inmates set for execution early next year. One of them, Clarence Ray Allen, contracted from prison the murders of 3 witnesses to a murder he had earlier committed which got him a life sentence. That’s the consequence of life sentences for these people — they can, and often will, kill again. I am not willing to accept that consequence, although I am willing to accept the stronger unlikelihood that an innocent person will be put to death. We have enough checks and balances for that, but none exist for the victims of these cowards.
John Cole
Brian- This is not the sole reason I think the death penalty can be abolished, as I think it should be abolished for a number of reasons (which I will not, for the sake of brevity, go into again). But I think a man dying because he missed a legal deadline is, in and of itself, a pretty good reason to end the death penalty.
And mind you, I understand why the 1996 act was passed, and I understand that lawyers employ all sorts of habeus appeals and other things to delay their executions.
Jason
Well, apparently some of us only oppose judicial activism when it’s conveeeeeeenient!
Bob In Pacifica
Brian, your argument apparently wasn’t powerful enough.
John, the next guy in line for the death penalty in California is turning 76 in January, when he’s scheduled to die, he’s got advanced diabetes, is legally blind, and will make his walk to the death chamber being pushed in a wheelchair.
What a decent society!
Kimmitt
Because it is.
Paddy O'Shea
Brian: You need to watch out what you wish for. Arnold is in sad shape politically here and the polls show that he is facing a possible humiliating defeat in his run for reelection next year. And one way to shore up his shaky conservative base would be to stage a string of executions, all the while braying about how tough on crime he is. That coupled with some old time immigrant and union bashing could make him the darling of the reactionaries again.
Hell, George “The Butcher Of Austin” Bush holds the record for executions as a U.S. state governor, and he nearly won the popular vote in the Presidential elections in 2000.
The death penalty in the hands of demagogues is a dangerous political tool, and we’d be better off not giving it to such folks.
Jason
Honestly, I don’t see why the fact the condemned man is being pushed to the death chamber in a wheelchair would be relevant. Personally, I couldn’t care less if they rolled him in a tire.
If death is such a horrible thing, he should have thought of that before he committed murder.
You also, for some silly reason, make something of the fact that he’s 75 years old. But if he were 18, you’d make something of that, too.
Which tells me his age isn’t the issue, even for you. You’re just throwing red herrings at the wall to see what sticks.
You want to sway my opinion? Find some exculpatory evidence of innocence. Absent that, don’t waste my time on this cretin.
Sam Hutcheson
The Republicans are French?
The historical similarities between the current incarnation of republicanism (neo-conservatism?) with Gaulist politics isn’t something to gloss over, no. The reason the French hate the current American government, more or less, isn’t because they disapprove of the tactics, but that they would prefer to do the same thing in the name of France. The reason the current strain of republicans hate all thing French is because the mirror is often the most difficult thing to look upon.
Bernard Yomtov
You want to sway my opinion? Find some exculpatory evidence of innocence. Absent that, don’t waste my time on this cretin.
But lots of exculpatory evidence has been found in cases of convicts on death row. Maybe not in the particular case in question, but certainly enough to demonstrate that our procedures allow a significant probability that an innocent man will be, or has been, executed.
SF
“And why is it always Texas, or Alabama, or Mississippi?”
Because that’s where the Republicans are.
TallDave
The word deadline finds it origins in the American lexicon as the line around prison camp during the Civil War that if crossed by a prisoner, allowed the guards to shoot the prisoner for attempting to escape.
I blame that fascist Rethuglican Abraham Lincoln.
Steve S
You left out some details…
He was convicted in 1978 of a crime committed in 1974.
The murders of the witnesses occured in 1980.
That’s a pretty damn thin argument for the death penalty. First, it was Allen’s son and his buddy Hamilton who committed the murders. It wasn’t a contract hit, it was blood kin. It’s just as likely they did it on their own as from his suggestion, given they sure as hell didn’t do it for money.
But more importantly, the death penalty isn’t hanging a guy at dawn. It’s a long process. Let’s say that they did only do this because he asked. It still would have occured.
Is Allen a bad man? Yep, definately. Would the Death Penalty have operated as a deterrant to this crime? Nope.
Steve S
I guess it doesn’t surprise me to see TallDave coming out against Lincoln. Since the Republicans so long ago abandoned the principles of Lincoln, they would see him as some kind of traitor now.
Nat Echols
Thanks, you just reminded me why I’m so strongly opposed to the death penalty. You’re willing to have innocent people killed by the state because it makes you feel safer. In other words, you’d sacrifice (other people’s) individual liberty to a powerful government, and use them as examples to keep the rabble in line. Despite repeated examples of prosecutorial misconduct, lying witnesses, incompetent lawyers, defendants absolved by DNA evidence (many years later), and several commuted death sentences, you still think it’s more important that we fry a few dozen lowlifes than have our justice system actually function.
This is not what a liberal democracy is supposed to look like. People like you are driving me towards gun ownership.
Jason
Is there any evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, lying witnesses, incompetent lawyers, or exoneration by DNA evidence in this case, or in the case of Tookie Williams?
No?
Then let’s prime the needle.
Got a problem with that, then make the case to the people of California and elect some anti death-penalty legislators.
I’m generally opposed to the death penalty too – on the probability, given a large enough number of defendants, that someone will be mistakenly executed.
But the left is so chronically and unerringly stupid, they choose poster boys like Tookie and Mumia who are POSTER CHILDREN for the death penalty.
TM Lutas
Resolved: Justice delayed is justice denied.
Discuss
ppGaz
No point is too unsubtle for this moron to miss it. Is there a law that prohibits retarded people from defecating all over blog comments?
Look, this isn’t about whether murder is a “horrible thing.”
It’s about the fact that government is too clumsy and crude an instrument to trust with life and death decisions and processes.
The same assholes who don’t think government can run a health care single-payer system are the ones who think government is just perfect when it comes to killing its own citizens.
Uh, no it isn’t, it’s ugly and disgusting. It can’t help but look like a cow trying to play the harp. It makes mistakes, and trips over its own feet. It demeans the whole idea of “justice” by treating justice and paperwork as if they were the same thing … hence, this thread.
S.W. Anderson
These judges turn what’s supposed to be a quest to establish the truth of a particular matter into a bureaucratic gotcha exercise. Yet what wailing, whining and gnashing of teeth we’ll get from these same judges when right-wing Republicans reduce them to actually being little more than bureaucratic functionaries.
Nat Echols
I’m not part of the left.
As far as Mumia and Tookie, you won’t find me at any candlelight vigil. And if Saddam gets the death penalty, I won’t be praying for mercy for him either. The fact that these men clearly deserve death doesn’t mean I trust the government – or, God forbid, my fellow citizens – with this decision. Tookie’s guilt doesn’t prove that the system works, and the vile bloodlust of the people braying for his execution has convinced me that this isn’t an issue on which people can be trusted to think rationally.
If, on the other hand, the store owners whom Tookie murdered had been heavily armed and blew him away instead, I’d favor giving them a medal.
ppGaz
That is correct.
srv
In other news, Vivica Novak’s husband just got nominated to the FEC… The corruption really knows no bounds.
So did this Tim F. thing not work out, or did his cat kill him?
John Cole
Re: Tim F.
He went to a conference last week and I have not heard from him since. I really hope he is ok.
Brian
Bob,
You are a morally decrepit human being. As with Tookie’s defenders, you never, ever take into account the crime or the victims of the crime. I don’t care if he’s 76, or 176, we have rules for determining that criminals like this guy get the death penalty, and a jury determined that his crime fit these criteria. I defer to the law-abiding citizens of my state, and not the criminals. This guy’s age and state of mind are completely irrelevant to me, at least as long as it’s positioned in some feel-good, “poor ol’ guy”, manner like you are putting forth. I have yet to see any argument for the elimination of the death penalty that is deeper than “because it’s not moral”. I believe that it’s moral TO have it. I truly sympathize with those who differ with me with something other than typecast Leftist buzzwords ala Cindy Sheehan or Jesse Jackson. Those of you here that think the DP should be abolished, are you FOR the theatrical mythmaking that led up to Tookie’s execution from the anti-DP crowd? Is that who you wish to be associated with? If you want to abolish this, get behind a group with the credibility to extend its “arguments” past the choir.
Brian
And Steve, the argument is not thin at all. He murdered witnesses to his original crime!!! Allowing him to stay alive via a life sentence also allowed him to carry out the subsequent murders, did it not?!?! What are you missing in this?
Nat Echols
No one here is defending Tookie or Mumia; only the DP supporters here are mentioning those names. I don’t choose or reject a cause based on who else supports it, so the fact that the International Socialists were picketing Tookie’s execution is simply an unfortunate coincidence. Would you accuse John of supporting bombing Mecca or rounding up Muslims in concentration camps, just because he and the LGF/Malkin types both support the War on Terror?
Steve S
Ahh, the insight of Jason Von Stupid.
How do you figure? He didn’t kill anybody. Someone else did. Those someone else are also bad people. You kill Allen, does that mean those bad people who are still on the outside of the prison system aren’t going to get bad ideas in their heads and do bad things?
You’re seriously suggesting that this man’s son and his buddy would have joined a monastery and lived a life of peace and good will if only that big bad Allen hadn’t suggested killing a bunch of people?
Just how naive are you? Bad people don’t just go do something bad because they heard it on TV. They do something bad, because they lack the fundamental morality and insight to realize it is bad.
There are bad people in this world. We need to be forever vigilent against their doing us harm.
The problem with the death penalty is it obviously doesn’t deter… your example, these two men didn’t think “Oh dear, we’re going to get the death penalty if we kill these people”… and neither did Allen, who is apparently preparing to die today.
So just what good is it?
Does it make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? That seems to be your argument, because it sure isn’t based upon logic or an understanding of human behavior.
Steve S
It apparently makes them feel good to think all opposition to their points is based on something ridiculous.
I’m not opposed to the Death Penalty, per se. I just think we use it too often for revenge. I’d prefer it be limited to the most extreme of cases, and then only when we are absolutely positively certain.
There’s already been at least one, possibly two innocent people put to death in Texas. Any system which has that track record for failure needs to be abandoned.
Brian
Like it or not, the defenders of Tookie are the ones who are front-and-center. John Cole (and LGF, and Malkin etc.) are not “in the air”, so to speak. They’re not in front of every camera, like Jackson, or on interview shows or news outlets everywhere, like Mike Farrell. They are the spokepeople for the anti-death penalty cause, and are speaking, in a very real sense, on your behalf. If you want law-abiding citizens who believe in the DP to come around to your side, you will need more credible representatives. Even you consider them “unfortunate”, so you’re on your way to realizing this.
Steve S
Now is that really a nice thing to say? There is nothing morally decrepit about showing compassion and Christian principles.
I don’t happen to agree with Bob. The only reason this guy is old is because he’s been rotting in jail for a long time. But he’s still an evil man, and the law is the law.
But that’s no reason to call someone names simply because you disagree with their point of view.
Brian
Steve,
You cannot be taken seriously if you cannot see guilt behind the contracting of murder. It is a crime. It is premeditated murder, but one with a general contractor and a sub-contractor, if you will.
It makes me feel terrible to carry out a death sentence. I wasn’t happy at Tookie’s passing. But I realize it as a just punishment for a premeditated murder under particular circumstances that the people of my state (CA) have approved. A more swift punishment for Mr. Allen might have saved those 3 others. Maybe not. But is it any more ridiculous than your claim that innocents get put to death, or might be? My position is one that innocents can still live if the punishment is carried out, that the murderers have justice available to them that the victims do not, and that the scales of justice and society are balanced by having obviously craven murderers and sociopaths removed from that society completely. Society seems to agree with me, at least in CA and some other states, for these very good reasons.
Brian
Oh bullshit. He’s morally decrepit, not decrepit, and I stand by that comment for his lack of showing compassion and Christian principles for the people that were murdered.
Don’t try to cow me with nonsense like that.
Nat Echols
Must compassion require that he join in the hysterical campaign for yet another death, this time at the hands of the state? I can certainly understand why the families of the victims would want the murderer dead, and I even agree that he deserves to die. Nonetheless, I still oppose the death penalty. If you think this makes me morally decrepit, go fuck yourself.
Brian
And, speakinjg of Christian principles, Sister Helen Prejan, the one who was played by Susan Sarandon in “Dead Man Walking” was asked on Larry King this week if the architect of Nazi crimes should have received the death penalty. She could not bring herself to say that he should be, and this referring to a person responsible for the murder of millions.
Hence, the moral vacuousness of the anti-death penalty position. It’s pro-criminal and morally lopsided to the point of being a farce.
Brian
No, I won’t go fuck myself. An easy thing for you to say at a distance though, yes? Your arguments and position is has so flatlines that you resort to that. I stand by my comment because it is not an epithet (unlike your friendly banter) but because it’s synonymous for “weak”, which your argument is. Why do you react so forcefully to that?
There’s no hysteria around our death penalty prisoners, unless of course you consider two dozen years to be a “hysterical” timeline for carrying out the sentence.
Brian
Correction:
Your arguments and position has so flatlined that you resort to that?
Sorry.
Nat Echols
I don’t like being called “morally decrepit” or “pro-criminal.” I don’t consider myself either of these things, and you’re distorting many people’s arguments to make those attacks. And yes, they are epithets.
GTinMN
Yeah, right, he’s immoral, and you’re defending government executions. Utter hypocrisy.
And then you parade out your so-called Christian principles. Oops, nothing actually Christian about them in this case. Remember the commandment about not killing your fellow humans? Oh, that’s right, the commandments only apply to you when it’s convenient, I forgot about that over-riding principle of the ‘Culture of Life’ crowd. You’re ‘saved’, so anything goes after that, right? Especially revenge-killing, really gets your righteous bloodlust up, so it’s justified?
srv
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!
Brian, I think you’re probably alot of things. But most of all, you’re not a good christian.
Jason
Anyone so juvenile as to resort to the 3rd grade ad hominem “Jason Von Stupid” has revealed much more about himself than he has about me.
Go play in mud puddles, boy.
Jason
Anyone so juvenile as to resort to the 3rd grade ad hominem “Jason Von Stupid” has revealed much more about himself than he has about me.
Go play in mud puddles, boy.
S.W. Anderson
Most on the left had little or nothing to say about Williams’ execution, specifically. That apparently unexpected development seemed to be a source of consternation among many on the right.
Most comments I’ve seen from the left that took exception expressed either a flat rejection of the death penalty in all cases or expressed general concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the system. Most seem to understand that Williams had been convicted, was well represented and had his many years of appeals and reviews.
I’m less familiar with Mumia’s case, and it’s been awhile. But my best recollection is that it seemed to generate not so much an outcry against the death penalty per se as it triggered a negative reaction among African Americans. They seemed to think the death penalty was (is) being directed disproportionately toward those dark of skin, short on connections and weak of finances.
Statistics do tend to support the validity of their concerns. If you want to call that the left, so be it, but I think you’re dealing in gross oversimplification to be able to take a political shot that’s not worth much.