Judge Cormac Carney, 2003 appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled today (warning, 29-page PDF) that California’s death penalty is an unconstitutional violation of the 8th Amendment because the system administering it is dysfunctional and arbitrary. The office of Attorney General Kamala Harris is reviewing the ruling, which may be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Couldn’t find a photo of the Ernest Dewayne Jones, so here’s a photo of famous executed California Caryl Chessman, adapted from this page: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2007/10/mystery-photo-s.html
NBC San Diego fills in some of the details:
Carney’s ruling stems from a 1995 case of Ernest Dewayne Jones who sued Kevin Chappell, the warden of the California State Prison at San Quentin. Jones was sentenced to death for the 1992 rape and killing of Julia Miller, 10 months after being paroled for a previous rape. Jones remains on Death Row, still awaiting his execution nearly 20 years after his sentence.
Of the 900 people sentenced to death for their crimes since 1978, when the current death penalty system was adopted by California voters, only 13 have been executed so far.
For the random few for whom execution becomes a reality, Carney said they will go on to languish for so long on death row that “their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary.”
To exist at all, the death penalty must be justified by at least one legitimate penological purpose, such as the aforementioned retribution or deterrence. It must also be carried out with respect to constitutional rights including due process and equal protection. The delays in the current system, largely caused by the latter considerations, mean that it no longer serves a legitimate purpose. It is, in effect, a crapshoot, where
… arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determines whether an individual will actually be executed.
With the death penalty being promised but not being carried out, Carney wrote that when an individual is condemned to death in California, the “promise made to citizens, jurors, victims and their loved ones and to the hundreds of individuals on death row” becomes “an empty one” and thus lacks “penological purpose.”
Supporters of the death penalty have argued that we should just loosen the constitutional protections that prevent speedy executions. The problem is that those protections exist for a reason, as numerous cases of executing or almost executing innocent people attest, and may render capital punishment, even if it’s a good idea, as one that cannot work in practice.
They should apply this logic to the drug war.
only killing unborn babies is legal now?
Nope, killing skinny homeless guys is still totally OK.
I think the judge means that we need to speed the process of justice. I am for that.
Another reason for the “ten story” punishment.
If found guilty, take to tenth floor and set to fly.
*You should not be able to kill someone using needles and pins……they said that back in the 1800’s…we think. They don’t even mention having to watch Jodie Arias or Donald Sterling tapes endlessly. Whatever happened to just good old straight “Hang by the neck until dead?” We think Marshall Dillion just needs to take these folks to Hays City and forget it.
Joel Fox of Fox&Hounds has the conservative take on this:
Sight unseen, I will bet that such “streamlining” would involve unconstitutional violations of Due Process. (Gray Davis is hardly the bulwark I’d depend upon to stand against his peers in this regard.) I reviewed Fox’s piece several times for mention of due process as a consideration, but apparently he must be saving that for a follow-up piece.