[M 91 u2 K]

Scalia for Chief Justice!

[VRWCmember]

Wow, I must have really poor reading skills since I have never found anything in the constitution delineating age restrictions related to crime and punishment. I see it is the same four usual suspects plus Kennedy that rendered this truly horrible opinion on the rest of the country. Forget about representative government. Forget about the right of the states to determine how to deal with brutal murderers. These five arbiters of the law get to dictate to the rest of us how we can apply justice. With the imminent loss of Rehnquist from the court, we sure do need to have two or more of these leftist devotees of central government power to fall off of the court in the next couple of years for the safety of the Republic. Something must turn this court around while we still have a Constitution left.

[Logophile]

"The court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our nation's moral standards," Scalia wrote.

And that is the real issue.

[muawiyah]

Kennedy is wrong on the culpability thing. He may believe teenagers to be much less culpable when it comes to murder. Around here it's presumed they are as nasty as anyone else.

Maybe the judge would like to take several of those bad-boys home for a few weeks to show us all how nice they are.

It's truly unfortunate that the Supreme Court has taken this moment to give criminal gang members a shield against punishment. Time to get a new court, FUR SHUR.

[Quick1]

Unbelieveable that there were even four justices in support of killing children.

You're either pro-life or you're not.

[skeeter]

Wonderful news, and at the very same time we're importing youthful gang members fm south & central america by the thousands.

Much more of this & I'll need to learn not to give a s***.

[markman46]

I think it is far past time to ignore this type of decision, and have the states do what we want them to do.

[Buckeye McFrog]

so...the entire arguement turns on what Justice Kennedy personally perceives as a "trend"...now THAT is intellectually weak!

[Houmatt]

Justices were called on to draw an age line in death cases after Missouri's highest court overturned the death sentence given to a 17-year-old Christopher Simmons, who kidnapped a neighbor in Missouri, hog-tied her and threw her off a bridge. Prosecutors say he planned the burglary and killing of Shirley Crook in 1993 and bragged that he could get away with it because of his age.

And he was proven right.

[blues_guitarist]

"The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes."

BRAVO SIERRA!

[Les_Miserables]

In a dissent, Scalia decried the decision, arguing that there has been no clear trend of declining juvenile executions to justify a growing consensus against the practice. "The court says in so many words that what our people's laws say about the issue does not, in the last analysis, matter: 'In the end our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty,' he wrote in a 24-page dissent. "The court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our nation's moral standards," Scalia wrote.

Scalia is right on most counts but falls short here. It is not "The Court" it is these five judges! Five. The four most liberal justices, Justice, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer; joined by Justice Kennedy, also a liberal.
I have no more difficulty favoring the death penalty for human animals regardless of age than I do favoring killing the enemy in time of war. To me it is the same thing. The case that sponsored this decision was clearly one where the death penalty should apply. BTW putting a malicious sadistic murderer to death is clearly far removed from the position that an unborn child has a right to explore life. Not even in the same ballpark.

[technomage]

If this were the 'law' back when the Constitution was written, they would not be executing murderers who were reaching middle age. After all, the average lifespan back then was what, 35 years?

[kennedy]

When Rehnquist steps down it will not change the composition of the Court unless Bush replaces him with a liberal (which is always possible -- Bush Sr. gave us Souter). The only way to turn the Court to the right would be for Bush to replace Kennedy, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg or Breyer. I don't see any of those five stepping down during the next 4 years.

[Tall_Texan]

What the court actually ruled:

If you want somebody murdered, hire a minor. We'll make sure they don't get the needle.

[Les_Miserables]

The oath of office for the SCOTUS is defined According to Title 28, Chapter I, Part 453 of the United States Code, each Supreme Court Justice takes the following oath:

"I, [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.''

Pretty weak and mushy if you ask me.

I would suggest that this oath needs to be modified (I believe this is within the power of the Justice Dept or at least the congress) and if it were, violation of it then could be considered not in "Good Behavior" the criteria for serving on the court in the first place.

The first suggestion I would make is to forswear any consideration of or any reference to any law or international treaty as a basis when interpreting the US Constitution. That would boot several of these judges who have indicated international law should bear on how they interpret our constitution. I am a believer in the philosophy of original intent but I don't think that needs to be included in the oath to cause a significant course correction of this runaway judicial body.

[Netizen]

"Our society views juveniles ... as categorically less culpable than the average criminal," Kennedy wrote.

Why? Are their victims any less dead?

Talk about cruel punishment:

Here's a case where a couple of wee poor babes didn't know what they were doing. /sarcasm

FACTS

¶2.Sixteen-year old Stephen Virgil McGilberry was charged with the deaths of 44-year-old Patricia Purifoy, his mother; 44-year-old Kenneth Purifoy, his step-father; 24-year-old Kimberly Self, his half-sister, and 3-year-old Kristopher Self, his nephew and Kimberly's son.Police were called to Kenneth and Patricia's home on October 23, 1994, where they found the four bludgeoned bodies.An investigation revealed that McGilberry and 14- year-old Chris Johnson had taken Kimberly's car and driven to a friend's house in another town.The next morning, their friend's mother, Brenda Smith Saucier, drove the pair back to the Purifoy home, where police were waiting.

¶3.After McGilberry was read his Miranda rights, he signed a waiver.He then confessed to the killings and told authorities that he and Johnson had committed the murders with baseball bats.McGilberry indicated that he was disgruntled because his driving privileges had been taken away and that he had bludgeoned Kenneth and Kimberly while John had hit Patricia and Kristopher.McGilberry also admitted striking his mother with the baseball bat because he felt that she was suffering.McGilberry told police that he had taken cash and credit cards from his mother and then driven away in Kimberly's car.Blood stains on McGilberry's clothing matched the blood types of the victims.

¶8.At trial, the State was granted a jury instruction which required the jury to consider whether the crimes were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.McGilberry argues that the murders were not heinous, atrocious or cruel because the victims were either rendered unconscious by the blows or were killed nearly instantly.McGilberry claims that defense counsel should have objected at trial and should have raised the matter on direct appeal.

Did more digging. This 16 year old knew exactly what he was doing.

¶2. McGilberry, who was 16 years of age at the time, lived at 7101 Dewberry Street in the St. Martin community in Jackson County, Mississippi, in the home of his stepfather and mother, Kenneth and Patricia Purifoy. McGilberry's half-sister, Kimberly Self, and her son, Kristopher Self, also lived in the Purifoy home.

¶3. McGilberry and Meyer Shawn Ashley ("Ashley") initially planned only to steal his half sister's green GEO Storm and sell it for cash or drugs in New Orleans. One week prior to the murders, McGilberry approached Ashley about killing his family. Ashley withdrew from the plot the Friday night before the murders when "things didn't sound right." On Saturday, McGilberry then discussed the murders with Chris Johnson ("Johnson"), who was 14 years of age. That Saturday night, McGilberry had a dream in which he visualized killing his parents. It was after this dream that he went down the street to Johnson's house where the plan to murder his family evolved.

¶4. McGilberry and Johnson returned to McGilberry's residence sometime around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, October 23, 1994. They originally considered slitting his parents' throats with a utility knife which police later found under a box in the attic of the Purifoy's home. This changed when they realized that it would be impossible to cut their throats because of the way Kenneth was sleeping. McGilberry and Johnson were in the garage smoking cigarettes when Johnson picked up a baseball bat and suggested that they knock their victims unconscious. They decided to hit the victims in the head with the baseball bat, drag them into the garage, weight the bodies and dump them off the pier. Due to the fact that McGilberry's mother was awake, the two were unable to execute their plan immediately. They placed the bats outside McGilberry's bedroom window and went back inside the house.

http://www.mslawyer.com/mssc/cases/990603/9700213.html

[cartoonistx]