Two appeals court judges — an Obama and a Trump appointee — halted Missouri's scheduled execution of Johnny Johnson. Then the full court stepped in. [Update: Johnson was executed.]
I've never liked the death penalty. I think a life sentence is plenty punitive. But that aside, there are few enough safeguards in the system, and plenty of errors occur. Why are these people so desperate to kill this guy without even giving the issue a hearing? It's callous and ridiculous.
Here's a particularly egregious quote from Gruender's concurrence: "to understand the nature of an execution is to have a rational understanding of the reason for it."
Of course, it's absurd that we're having this conversation in the first place, and reflects the circular reasoning that underlies a fair bit of 8th amendment jurisprudence and other legal writing.
The death penalty holds no purpose in the United States. It does not give closure to victims' families. It does no act as any kind of deterrent. It costs the states' governments and the federal government untold wasted dollars defending an inherently immoral decision.
I've never liked the death penalty. I think a life sentence is plenty punitive. But that aside, there are few enough safeguards in the system, and plenty of errors occur. Why are these people so desperate to kill this guy without even giving the issue a hearing? It's callous and ridiculous.
Here's a particularly egregious quote from Gruender's concurrence: "to understand the nature of an execution is to have a rational understanding of the reason for it."
Of course, it's absurd that we're having this conversation in the first place, and reflects the circular reasoning that underlies a fair bit of 8th amendment jurisprudence and other legal writing.
The death penalty holds no purpose in the United States. It does not give closure to victims' families. It does no act as any kind of deterrent. It costs the states' governments and the federal government untold wasted dollars defending an inherently immoral decision.
Blood lust is strong in America...maybe everywhere. 😔