As I write these words, the execution of the "Fort Hood shooter," Major Nidal Hasan, is set for December 3. By firing squad. It feels strange to write this, or for this to be news, but: it appears that the execution of Major Hasan will NOT be televised. Wise comments by Abe Greenwald of Commentary magazine: Arguments about capital punishment aside, turning it into a livestreaming event would have been a terrible, multifaceted mistake. For one thing, there’s the matter of public decency. For another, the footage would surely have ended up on the screens of minors. But there are more important considerations. Jihadists aren’t deterred by seeing one of their own put to death. It whets their appetite for terrorism—not because, as the left would have you think, they want vengeance but because they’re jealous of the martyr. For them, there’s no higher calling than to die in the service of killing infidels. All fine points. Another point: The non-televising of thi...
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Marcellus Williams is dead. He has been executed by a state of the United States, (Missouri) and likely for no offense more grievous than that of having been a convenient scapegoat. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/24/marcellus-williams-execution-missouri-faq/ Three DNA experts have concluded that the DNA on the murder weapon was not Marcellus'. There is no battle-of-the-experts here. No DNA expert disagrees with this. The evidence was contaminated. The DNA was that of a investigator and an assistant prosecuting attorney who handled the murder weapon, a knife, improperly. Williams' death was an injustice that the former Governor, Eric Greitens, seems to have been interested in correcting. Greitens in 2017 convened a board to review the evidence, including material that jurors had never heard at trial. Unfortunately, for justice and for Williams, Greiten resigned from office in the midst of a charges that he had sexually assaulted a former hairdres...
Richard Glossip still alive? I heard about his case months ago, and only now decided to check up on him. The Glossip case is the one that led a state rep in Oklahoma, Kevin McDugle, to promise to "fight to end the death penalty if Glossip dies." Given how hard it has proven to be to achieve any other result, shouldn't McDugle reach that conclusion for himself anyway? Does he need the sacrifice? Hmmm. Anyway, after some web searching, I have to say that appears he is still alive. Either that or he died of natural causes on death row and the fact has been underreported. On Jan. 22, the Supreme Court granted cert on Glossip's claims to actual innocence and whether "due process of law requires reversal ... where a capital conviction is so infected with errors that the State no longer seeks to defend it." In terms of timing, my guess is that the Court hears arguments early next term, so that a decision won't come down until early 2025. Glos...
Mississippi, a state where pro-death-penalty sentiment was and is very strong, executed six people in 2012. It has not executed anyone in the years since, largely because pharmaceutical companies have made it difficult for states to get their hands on the drugs used for the lethal injections. But on Thursday, Oct. 21, the Mississippi Supreme Court announced that David Neal Cox -- the fellow portrayed above -- will be executed on Nov. 21 for the murder of his wife Kim, in May 2010. David Neal Cox shot Kim twice in May 2010, then sexually assaulted his stepdaughter (the murder victim’s daughter) while Kim was dying. Cox has pleaded guilty. Not only to the murder but to the rape as well -- which means he has given the state the necessary "aggravating" factor allowing for his execution. What about the issue of pharmaceutical gridlock? The Mississippi Corrections Commissioner, Burl Cain, says the state has the drugs it will need next month. But he has also...
The US Supreme Court is back to hearing cases. On its very first day of the new session, it heard a dandy. KAHLER v. KANSAS asks whether, especially in the context of capital punishment, a state can constitutionally take the insanity defense off the table. The 14th amendment to the US Constitution provides that “no state shall … deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The Supreme Court has long held that the due process requirement is most stringent for the first of those threats, a proposed deprivation of life: that is, there is a “super due process” required for application of the death penalty. In a matter that the Court will hear Monday, lawyers for a death row inmate will argue that a Kansas law abolishing the insanity defense in a capital matter deprived their client of this necessary super due process of law, and they will ask that his sentence be overturned. You might say, "ah, surely with the two new Trump appoi...
This is the third in our four part discussion of the Supreme Court's October 2018 term, recently concluded. It has been a big year for the constitutional treatment of the criminal justice system, and we'll deal with four cases in that line here. We will ignore others that might have fit this theme, among them Gundy v. US (where the Court passed over an attempt to reinvigorate the nondelegation doctrine in this area) and Mitchell v. Wisconsin (involving a blood alcohol test on an unconscious man). As always, my decisions on exclusion and inclusion in this review are final and unappealable. Excessive Fines The Bill of Rights did not originally limit the actions of state governments, only those of the federal government. That, at least, has been the reigning wisdom at least since Barron v. Baltimore (1833). As it happens, I now and then feel compelled to question the rightness of Barron , but I'll leave that aside. The various provisions of the Bill have, noneth...
Happy Spring everyone. Here is a story I've heard, and a skeptical comment I'd like to insert into it. All very philosophical. As readers of this blog probably know, Aristotle was well-connected with the royal family of Macedonia. At one point in his life runs the story, while he was still spending most of his time in Athens, hostility toward him became very high, because Macedonia was a foreign and hostile power. So, fearing arrest, Aristotle left town, going to take up permanent residence in Macedonia. He is supposed to have said to Athenians on his way out of the gate, “I will not stay, and allow this city to sin once more against philosophy.” Personally, I doubt he said that. A later scribe must have thought it would have been the right thing for him to say at the moment. And I think that if he DID say that, he probably muttered to himself under his breath, “especially not on ME.”
I came across this by accident while looking for something else, but it is a fascinating story. It's the life and death of the first woman executed in the United States, specifically by Massachusetts two years after Independence had been declared. I had never heard of the case and am happy for the serendipity of this discovery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathsheba_Spooner It leaves me wondering why the case hasn't developed a higher pop-culture profile than it has. The wiki article cites a single radio dramatization of it back in the 50s Somebody ought to pick up on this!
Really? This one had to be argued? McCoy was on trial for his life. He made very clear to his lawyer that he did not want to plead guilty and wanted an alibi defense. His lawyer bluntly told the jury that McCoy was guilty. McCoy is now on death row. It is possible to extend some sympathy to Mr English, McCoy's lawyer. He may well have believed that the best chance to save his client's life was to admit guilt and ask for a life sentence as an act of mercy. Nonetheless, that wasn't his call. A lawyer is the agent of his client, not the principal. .