In another bit of death penalty insanity, Justic Scalia halted the execution of a Texas Death Row inmate 20 minutes before the scheduled time for such execution to start. The issue is whether one of the drugs used in the lethal injection violates the the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The person who was supposed to be executed, Kevin Lee Zimmerman, was none too happy about the reprieve. His distaste is the basis of my objection ot the death penalty: that there is too much delay from the time the sentence is handed down and the time that the sentence is carried out. It is cruel and unusual for someone to have to wait 20 years or more to be put to death.
I have previously made my thoughts on the issue known. I suppose I should not rag on Justice Scalia too much for this inane decision, as from the showin' in his dissent in the upholdin' of the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform act of 2002, at least it appears that he believes that the provisions of the U. S. Constitution do mean somethin'.
attribution: Talk Left, from which my link that was previously thereon seems to be missin'. Does that mean I am doin' somethin' too right? Oh well, it is still my favorite left leanin' blog and has gotten my vote in the 2003 Weblog Award event.
Posted by notGeorge at December 11, 2003 03:20 PM | TrackBack