Due Process - it's not for anybody any more

[vaskidmark]

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/208875/#respond

Somehow these death penalty cases, in their quest to “protect” convicted murderers, seem to lose sight of the horrendous nature of the crimes (which is why the death penalty was imposed in the first place), and forget altogether the innocent victims. I will never forget the death penalty case I worked on when I clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  The facts–and the visual of what happened to the victims (including photos in the record)–still haunt me.  The murderer, Fletcher Thomas Mann, was executed in 1995. The world is a better place now that he is gone.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420024/justice-thomass-dissent-in-Brumfield-shows-sympathy-for-the-victim-not-her-killer

Justice Thomas — who was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Antonin Scalia, and Justice Samuel Alito in the dissent — admonishes the majority for having spent its entire opinion on why Brumfield should be given habeas relief over his claim of “intellectual disability,” overturning both the conclusions and decisions of the Louisiana Supreme Court as well as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, while devoting only “a single sentence to a description of the crime for which a Louisiana jury sentenced Brumfield to death.” ​

Yes, the victims deserve our sympathy.  But that's not germane to the question of whether or not the defendant/convicted person was afforded due process.  Anything else and it's just more of the same of the recent Title IX sexual assault cases where the accused is guilty even if proved not guilty, or even proved innocent.

stay safe.

[Jamisjockey]

Yes, the victims deserve our sympathy.  But that's not germane to the question of whether or not the defendant/convicted person was afforded due process.  Anything else and it's just more of the same of the recent Title IX sexual assault cases where the accused is guilty even if proved not guilty, or even proved innocent.

stay safe.

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Also...the burden of proof for the state to execute a citizen should be excessively high.  We don't want this to become a routine thing.  Once it becomes routine, then it becomes commonplace even for not quite as heinous crimes.  State sponsored death is a slippery slope.
This isn't about sympathy for the victims.  They got that in their day in court.  This is about making sure the accused isn't being railroaded by the state.