Judge: Federal Death Penalty Unconstitutional

Associated Press ^ | Monday, July 01, 2002

[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.

[goldstategop]

Kick A Federal Judge A Day Off The Bench. Now that's more like it.

[pro-life]

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.

[AmishDude]

No, but it rhymes with 1995 Clinton nominee.

[WindMinstrel]

I'm pretty sure the reporter got this guy's first and last initials reversed.

That one actually made me LOL! Well done!

[The Iceman Cometh]

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.

[CyberCowboy777]

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.

[VRWC_minion]

Good news for the terrorists.

[NetValue]

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.

[goldstategop]

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.

[M Kehoe]

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

[FreeTally]

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.

[Poohbah]

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.

[goldstategop]

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!!!

[Demidog]

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.

[Henchster]

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!

[goldstategop]

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.

[SunStar]

Judge: Federal Death Penalty Unconstitutional

Just in time to spare John Walker-Lindh and Zacarious Mussaoui. The terrorists must be proud!

[steve50]

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.

[KC Burke]

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.

[goldstategop]

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.