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Judge: Federal Death Penalty Unconstitutional
Associated Press ^
| Monday, July 01, 2002
Posted on 07/01/2002 9:04:54 AM PDT by Dog Gone
NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional Monday, saying too many innocent people have been sentenced to death.
U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff issued a 28-page ruling reaffirming his earlier opinion that the death penalty act violated the due process rights of defendants.
The federal government was expected to appeal the ruling, which would not affect individual states' death penalty statutes.
The court found that the best available evidence indicates that, ``on the one hand, innocent people are sentenced to death with materially greater frequency than was previously supposed and that, on the other hand, convincing proof of their innocence often does not emerge until long after their convictions.''
Rakoff had indicated in April that he was considering declaring the federal death penalty unconstitutional and gave prosecutors one last chance to persuade him otherwise before he ruled on a pre-trial defense motion to find the statute unconstitutional.
In papers filed May 16, U.S. Attorney James B. Comey urged Rakoff to resist ruling on the issue at all until after a Sept. 2 drug conspiracy murder trial.
Prosecutors noted that the Supreme Court had already concluded that the due process safeguards of the Constitution do not guarantee perfect or infallible outcomes.
They also challenged the judge's conclusion that studies had shown numerous innocent individuals were being sentenced to death, saying the studies all involved state courts.
In 14 years that the federal death penalty has been in place, none of the 31 defendants sentenced to death have later been found to be innocent, the government said.
In the case before the judge, Alan Quinones and Diego Rodriguez, alleged partners in a Bronx-based heroin selling operation, are accused of hogtying, torturing and killing an informant, Edwin Santiago, on June 27, 1999.
TOPICS: Breaking News; Constitution/Conservatism
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To: hellinahandcart
Kick A Federal Judge A Day Off The Bench. Now that's more like it.
To: Dog Gone; All
whether or not one supports having the death penalty, this is good news to us. the states can still use the death penalty...this only keeps the corrupt federal government from using it. as our country becomes more and more of a corrupt police state, the more the federal govt will abuse the use of the death penalty.
22
posted on
07/01/2002 9:14:32 AM PDT
by
pro-life
To: Fred Mertz
No, but it rhymes with 1995 Clinton nominee.
To: laredo44
I'm pretty sure the reporter got this guy's first and last initials reversed.
That one actually made me LOL! Well done!
To: Dog Gone
Rakoff said he decided on law school for "the usual reason: I eliminated everything else," ruling out song-writing-after working on school musicals-as well as academia and journalism. In other words, he had nothing to offer society so he crawled in the gutter with the rest of the rats.
To: Dog Gone
Capital Punishment cannot be found un-constitutional on grounds of mistakes having been made; else the entire penal system is un-constitutional. If the rules do not allow proper defense then we can find those un-constitutional and change them.
To: Dog Gone
Good news for the terrorists.
To: Dog Gone
Back in the days when we followed the US Constitution crimes that allowed death as a penalty were reserved to the STATES! I like this ruling. My heartfelt hope is that someday the courts really look to the US Constitution as written, as the way things are supposed to be.
28
posted on
07/01/2002 9:16:18 AM PDT
by
NetValue
To: Demidog
These prisoners were charged with federal offenses for which the federal death penalty is specified as punishment. Yes I do think the Judge needs to be impeached. He's out of control and if we let people like him continue to do what they're doing, pretty soon we won't recognize the country we live in.
To: dubyaismypresident
Amazing that this not the 9th Citcuit, from which all most idiocy comes.That's what I was thinking when I saw the headline.
5.56mm
30
posted on
07/01/2002 9:16:43 AM PDT
by
M Kehoe
To: Demidog
And why doesn't the Judge simply state that the constitution is quite specific about what crimes the federal government has jurisdiction over and what territories this jurisdiction would apply (thereby rendering most federal law enforcement and in fact vast pages of federal law unconstitutional)? LOL!! Do we even need to ask that question. This is one of those "piss the people off while keeping our power" decisions.
The judge no doubtedly wants lenient sentences for violent criminals, so that they get released and commit more crime, thus giving the government more "justification" for passing more totalitarian laws that will only affect the non-violent citizens.
To: lelio
What do you have to do to get a federal death sentence?Murder federal law enforcement officers; commit espionage on behalf of a foreign power in matters of nuclear weapons, military cryptographic systems, and military space systems. That's just about it.
32
posted on
07/01/2002 9:17:54 AM PDT
by
Poohbah
To: NetValue
Me too. And say where does Rakoff draw the conclusion innocent people were sentenced to serve on Federal Death Row? Sounds like he's following the abolitionist agenda instead of the law. IMPEACH RAKOFF TODAY!!!
To: goldstategop
These prisoners were charged with federal offenses for which the federal death penalty is specified as punishment Name one. And then name me the part of the consitution which authorizes the feds to prosecute murder laws.
34
posted on
07/01/2002 9:18:25 AM PDT
by
Demidog
To: Dog Gone
![](http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/archive/97/mar97/rakoff.gif)
Here's the POS's address and phone number, so we can FReep his @$$!
Hon. Jed S. JACKOFF
United States District Judge
Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse
500 Pearl Street, Room 1340
New York, New York 10007-1312
(212) 805-0401
Let's get to work NY FReepers!
To: Demidog
Treason, Murder of Federal officials, Sabotage, and Espionage Offenses. The Constitution provides Congress with the power to establish federal courts to punish violations of the Constitution and federal laws.
To: Dog Gone
Judge: Federal Death Penalty Unconstitutional Just in time to spare John Walker-Lindh and Zacarious Mussaoui. The terrorists must be proud!
37
posted on
07/01/2002 9:22:18 AM PDT
by
SunStar
To: NetValue
Been a lot of evidence of prosecuters railroading some perps just to get a case off the books and look good, and they are not criminally liabile for such actions. Maybe we should take a look at that issue also. Prosecuters need a certain amount of protection, but in many instances they have clearly crossed the line.
38
posted on
07/01/2002 9:22:42 AM PDT
by
steve50
To: FreeTally
If the laws are uconstitutional, then any penalty is as well. Then they should be struck down on that basis to provide the case law history. Instead, what we have here is a violation of the seperation of powers designed into our Republic. Judges are writing laws, nothing more and nothing less than usurping the Legislative Power.
39
posted on
07/01/2002 9:22:48 AM PDT
by
KC Burke
To: KC Burke
Time to get that proposal by Robert Bork sent to the states pronto. The one that authorizes Congress by a majority vote to overrule any judicial edict that contradicts existing law or the Constitution.
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