Posted on 06/13/2008 11:56:07 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
ELYRIA -- Framed posters of Barack Obama, Che Guevara and Henry David Thoreau hang in the office of Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge.
The judge, who is conducting hearings on the constitutionality of Ohio's method for putting prisoners to death, said he respects those who back up words with action and that Thoreau, the 19th-century philosopher, was his first role model.
''I tend to admire people who in my opinion go beyond their speech -- they actually do what they say,'' Burge said.
For Burge, that will mean putting aside personal opinions on the death penalty -- he won't comment on where he stands -- in his ruling on whether Ohio's lethal injection process provides the quick and painless death required by state law.
The 61-year-old Burge, who wears a white goatee and likes to chew on cigars but not smoke them, has spent his entire career in this Northeast Ohio county where he built a reputation over 31 years as a hard-hitting, honorable defense attorney.
''When you're in trouble, he's the guy you go see,'' former county Republican chairman Bob Rousseau said.
Burge's record includes five cases where he worked to save the lives of accused killers, including James Filiaggi, who was executed last year for chasing down and killing his ex-wife.
''It got to the point where I could treat it as an intellectual exercise, so you had a set of facts, but no client,'' Burge said of capital cases. ''You had to handle it as a law school problem, otherwise you don't keep a clear head and it's difficult to see the whole picture.''
Burge is approaching his decision on lethal injection the same way -- removing any emotion and reviewing testimony from two expert anesthesiologists called by the state and defendants Ronald McCloud and...
(Excerpt) Read more at morningjournal.com ...
The Heller decision can't come down fast enough. Either way, we'll know.
But the Left said that there was no Communist infiltration of our government. They said that was all right wing propaganda.
Great work! ;)
The Obama office in Houston also has a Che Guevara poster in it also. Hmmm.....
The very first comment at the bottom of the article says it so well...
“Irony
I find it mildly humorous that a man that has fought so hard for the defense in death penalty cases would honor a man that once said: ”To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary...These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.”
I don’t know what’s scarier: The thought that someone in such a position of power and authority would be so ignorant as to look up to that barbarian butcher, or that someone who knows history and still admires that scum could get elected.”
R.M., lima ohio
And the alternative to Obama? The GOP has provided us with Obama lite this year. Obama and his supporters disgust me but what is our option, McCain? McCain who supports LaRaza, McCain who supports the terrorists?, McCain who supports stifling free speech? McCain who hates conservatives? McCain who dispises the protection of American citizens and would rather allow criminals to freely cross our border? We really have no choice...we are screwed for at least the next four years. I will be surprised if we will be able to speak our mind on the net, listen to conservatives on the radio or protest our leaders after the election of the next president.
The real question is how fast do you want to go over the cliff?
I believe his hero Che was quite good at putting Castro's political prisoners to death...
Aging leftist enjoying his semi-retirement on the bench.
This commie d-bag might be on to something. No body knew more about executions than that brutal thug Che.
He obviously has no trouble with how his hero Che put prisoners to death. Of course, they were political prisoners. If a communist takeover happens in America I imagine Burge will have no problem with executing political prisoners.
As an Ohioian and an American, this piece of garbage should be “removed” along with his commie hero posters. Absolutely pathetic and reflects how much danger the true America is in today.
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