Sustained!: Foreshortening An Orderly Review

Friday, November 13, 2009

Foreshortening An Orderly Review

“I do, however, remain firmly convinced that no State should be allowed to foreshorten this Court’s orderly review of . . . first-time habeas petition[s] by executing prisoners before that review can be completed.” Emmett v. Kelly, 552 U. S. 942, 943 (2007) (STEVENS, J., joined by GINSBURG, J., respecting denial of certiorari).

Any champion of the constitution would want to insure that the Government's use of authority did not abuse or wrongfully restrict a person's liberty. No right minded American would want to execute or imprison an innocent person. As such, there are numerous appeals and a fairly lengthy review in most state courts of Capital (Death Penalty) convictions. At the very least, there is a process in federal court for further appeals after a Capital conviction (whether the sentence be from Federal or State Court). In theory, the system is designed to foster confidence in the process of the State exacting the ultimate punishment - death. However, a disturbing trend is present amongst States schooled in implementing the death penalty. States are scheduling executions on dates to limit a condemned prisoner's opportunity to challenge his conviction. Recently, the State of Virginia, knowing the the Supreme Court would conduct a review of a petitioners application for a stay of execution on a certain day, scheduled an execution at least two weeks prior to the date for the review.

The effect of this type of move forces the condemned person to file his application for a stay earlier, affording less time for research and for composing an effective argument. It also forces the Supreme Court to decide stay applications faster. And given the current conservative make-up of the United States Supreme Court, it generally means that Stays are denied faster and without a full review of the case. Such a circumstance increases the likelihood that an innocent person will be executed. The perversity of such a situation has been previously recognized by Justices Stevens and Ginsburg. Now, the list of enlightened Judges is lengthening. Justices Stevens and Ginsberg recently spoke out about the need for automatic stays of execution to avoid a State's attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court's orderly review of the conviction. This time they were joined by Justice Sotomayor (See their note here). If the Court does nothing to correct this obvious manipulation of its scheduling system, Congress should correct it through legislation mandating that Stays of execution be automatic in certain situations. If not, an innocent life might be sacrificed on a disorderly altar of expedience.

1 comments:

AnonymousJul 26, 2010 12:53 PM
It is not the language of the writer but the heart of the poet that makes the difference. I have seen many men in great dispostions give their very best at the expedience of someone elses contents. I have seen what seems to be great men who were fairly exacted only because they were great writers at the expedience of another hearts drummer. It is not the writer that gives rythem to the heart, no it is the poet that makes the contents of the heart flow. It is the man that suffers behind the windows of pain that gives motion to the movement and action to the desire. It is the phenominal addressing of the magic that hides in the editors eyes. It is not the writer who waited on the crumb to fall under the table before he could mark the literature with the employment of his desire. It is the man that didn't have a heaping substance but still able to take what was nothing and turn it into desire. It is not the writer that makes the difference nor is it the prosecutor with the nose of a shark. It is the one that equated the substance that gave way to the scent that captures the hearts desires. I am the heart of the poet at the writers desire. I am the defence in the court yard that offers the aroma that sets my captives free.
ReplyDelete

Add comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

The Gavel Goes Down on the 1%: Occupy This!

Protestors took to the Streets in New York, occupying Wall Street to protest corporate greed and corruption. The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and since then other protests have been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Many of these protest are still on-going. Here in the City of Houston, protestors are staging rallies nearly every week. Internationally, other protest have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide. These protests have been growing. We are witnessing the beginnings of a social movement. With their goals yet undefined, but steadily becoming more defined; the gavel goes down on the "Occupy" Movement's objections to the explotation of the 99% by the 1%. It will only be a matter of time until the energies of the protestors are transferred to other vehicles: like voter registration drives and engaging in other activities to increase social awareness.

The Gavel Goes Down: Police Officers Committing Crimes

In many places police officers commit crimes with impunity. But on March 31, 2011, a federal judge in New Orleans sentenced a former New Orleans police officer to 25 years in prison for his role in the shooting death of a man and the burning of his body after Hurricane Katrina.

David Warren was convicted in December of shooting 31-year-old Henry Glover without justification outside a strip mall less than a week after the storm hit in August 2005.

Sentencing is scheduled later for former officer Gregory McRae, who burned Glover's body in a car near a police station.

A jury also convicted former Lt. Travis McCabe of writing a false report on the shooting. His sentencing is on hold while his lawyers seek a new trial. But the Gavel Goes Down on Police getting away with Police Abuse. Twenty-five years may seem a little light for murder (The feds do not have parole and he will serve at least 20 years), but it certainly is a start.

The Gavel Goes Down: Oppression and Genocide in Sudan

Sudan may be headed for a split, with Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan forming two independent nations. Southern Sudanese election officials posted early results Sunday, January 16, 2011, indicating that perhaps more than 95 percent of voters in this regional capital voted to secede from Sudan. The referendum, held last week, was the capstone of decades of civil war in Sudan, which pitted Christian and animist rebels in the south against Arab rulers in northern Sudan. All indications show the weeklong referendum passing.

While the results are the first concrete steps for the south to secede from the rest of Sudan and become its own country, the final vote tally is not scheduled to be announced until Feb. 14. And true independence would not come before July 9, when an U.S.-backed peace agreement between the north and the south expires. It was signed in 2005. Still, many issues need to be ironed out, including citizenship rights, oil sharing and the future of the contested and volatile Abyei region, which was supposed to hold its own referendum on whether to join the south or the north but never did. But, the Gavel Goes Down on the world's objections to the attempted genocide that occurred in Sudan that resulted in the indictment of Sudan's president by the International Criminal Court.

In Washington, President Barack Obama congratulated the south on holding a peaceful, orderly referendum, calling it an "inspiration." But he also warned against breaking the peace agreement timetable.

The Gavel Goes Down: Ignoring the impact of Slavery on American History

After more than eight years of street demonstrations, arguments, haggling and missed deadlines; after extensive public debate about the impact of slavery on life in the United States and on the life and moral character of George Washington; after countless news articles and TV programs, the site marking the intertwined lives of presidents and slaves opened to the public on December 15, 2010 on Philadelphia's Independence Mall. "President's House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation" chronicles the story of race and power at the heart of our nation's birth. President George Washington owned some 300 slaves. His ownership of these slaves brought him status and power, which positioned him for the presidency. Despite Washington's signing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793, many slaves owned by him struggled and obtained freedom. The exhibit is the fruit of the struggled of the Black community in Philadelphia. It is an acknowledgment that Black people were part of America and contributed to it from the beginning. The exhibit tells the story of the inhabitants of the first Executive Mansion: George Washington and John Adams and the nine enslaved Africans held there by President Washington during his two terms in office. It is a stark objection to the white-washing of American history.

The Gavel Goes Down: 55 Years After Rosa Said No

The Gavel Goes Down: Eliminating the Kibera

The Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya has long been known as "the largest slum in Africa." This assertion has been recently challenged and many observers now believe that Kibera is the second largest slum in Africa. In September of 2009, the government of Kenya began clearing the Kibera to -rehouse all of the Nairobi's slum residents. Kenya plans to move all of the residents within the next nine years to communities that will include schools, markets and other facilities. Through the use of U.N. funding, funds from other relief efforts, and its own resources; the Kenyan government is spearheading the project. I (Eric J. Davis) visited the Kibera in 2006 and had the opportunity to spend time with some of the residents. Due to my ethnicity and the fact that we were accompanied by some Kibera residents, we were able to blend in and pass for locals. The resilance of the people was amazing. It was a small city where the people appeared to govern themselves well. The Kibera was safer than many major American cities. Nevertheless, the effects of poverty were apparent. There were no schools, no clean water, no sewage and no hospitals. Should the resettlement survive legal challenge (some slum lords are claiming ownership of the land and are taking the government to court - people pay rent to live in the slums), this African nation will take a big step towards eliminating poverty in its borders. Kenya is proof that African nations can govern themselves. The gavel goes down on Kenya's objections to poverty.