Alito Opposes Mo. Execution

AP ^ | Feb 1, 2006 | AP

[kddid]

WASHINGTON (AP) - New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court's conservatives Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection.

Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.

[Howlin]

Right off the bat he doesn't toe the line.... I really am impressed.

I'm really impressed that you could make that statement without having all the facts!

You must be so excited! Perhaps you'll have something ELSE to whine about now!

[JRochelle]

Not worth it.
What if it was you? Or your child?

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Is he a liberal?

He is a human being. Let us see how this plays out.

[JCEccles]

The mindset that says no criminal should be put to death if there is the slightest possibility of error is the same mindset that would spend any amount of money--other people's money--to prolong one life. It sounds noble. In fact it is shortsighted and ultimately more destructive of other lives.

That's just the way it is.

So, I can fault your argument because it ultimately kills more innocent lives than it saves.

[JCEccles]

Anytime you personalize an argument with respect to justice, you destroy justice. That's why neither the family of the murdered victim nor the family of the killer is placed on a jury to determine guilt or punishment.

We have criminal trials, and even capital punishment in select cases, in part to prevent people from taking justice into their own hands. Most people can abide occasional errors from a justice system even if that result runs counter to their interests. But if they get to the point that they have NO confidence in it--as where it punishes arbitrarily or never appears to punish at all--then they tend to take matters into their own hands.

An imperfect justice system that strives to get it right is far superior to anarchy and vigilante justice.

[Michael.SF.]

ROFLMAO

[sageb1]

No flame from me. Neither am I.

[JCEccles]

Your position is shortsighted, emotion-driven, and ultimately more destructive of life.

[sageb1]

You have no clue what drives my decision. You've made up your mind. That's fine. I have been in the middle on this for years. I understand both sides. I had to make a personal decision. You made yours. I made mine. I will not fight yours because I don't know, as you seem to, what the answer is.

[scott7278]

Thanks for the information!

[Petronski]

Excellent. Well done.

[balch3]

you can be sarcastic, but this does cause a little worry. Maybe nothing to it, but I'll be watching to see what happens next.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

that is what I'm saying, DRUDGE Is wrong!

What else is new?

*shrugs*

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

If we put to death 1000 guilty criminals and 1 who is not guilty, to me its not worth it.

I don't know about the paradise where you live, but some innocent person dies in a car crash every day in this town.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

An emergency request to short circuit the appeals court process is seldom granted except to prevent irreparable harm. In this case, the only harm would have been to the state's execution schedule, hence the state's request was not granted. And there is no way Alito has looked at the case.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

</hysteric Freeper response>

IMPEACH ALITO!!!!
How's that for hysteric response? :-)

[M. Espinola]

Thanks for posting the entire vote. I feel we can't determine the direction of either of the new Justices until a few months worth of bench decisions are forth coming for review.

[theDentist]

1 decision and he's already being denounced. LOL.

[palmer]

In the second, he claimed that lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment. Alito heard that request, and then the court voted 5-4 to UPHOLD that request, thus putting the execution on hold.

Thanks for the precise information. My take is Alito is needed to swing one of the mild liberals (Souter and Kennedy) to his way on the important cases. The other 3 liberals are basket cases and we only have 4 conservatives and need 5 votes. So there is some give and take so that we can get 5 or 6 votes on the important cases.

[Stoooopendous]

How about we put nobody in jail because one of them might be innoncent? It's okay for an innocent to spend life behind bars, but not okay to execute him?

What a complete ramble of BS.