Free Republic

I have no idea why some conservatives have decided that they need to imitate liberals by standing up for criminals. Ted Cruz fortunately isn’t one of them. Cruz refused to join the calls for clemency for Scott Panetti, who had murdered his in-laws and held his wife and daughter hostage, and instead said, “I trust the criminal justice system to operate, to protect the rights of the accused and to administer justice to violent criminals.” “I don’t think it’s appropriate for me, as an elected official who does not currently have a role in the criminal justice system, to be...

No one disputes that Scott Panetti—heavily armed, head shaved and wearing camouflage—shot and killed his in-laws at their Texas Hill Country home, showering his estranged wife and 3-year-old daughter in blood. Panetti himself acknowledged during his 1995 capital murder trial that he had killed Joe and Amanda Alvarado. Dressed as a cowboy, he acted as his own attorney, believing only an insane person could prove an insanity defense. Jurors convicted him and sentenced him to death, and he is scheduled to die on Wednesday. Panetti’s attorneys are seeking to get him off death row or, in the very least, to...