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February 10, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
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Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
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Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
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Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
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January 24, 2012
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Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
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January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
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January 13, 2012
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
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Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
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David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
April 17, 2008
/ 12 Nissan 5768
Justice ends the holiday
By
Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Case closed. Lethal injection is not unconstitutional. So the U.S. Supreme Court ruled with a 7-2 decision Wednesday. After years of bad lawyering and bogus medical research on lethal injection, common sense has prevailed.
Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by two justices, wrote the main Baze vs. Rees case opinion. There were three concurring opinions, and one dissent, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and joined by Justice David Souter.
"In essence, seven judges agreed with the core ruling, that the Kentucky process was not unconstitutional," noted Michael Rushford of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento. In that Kentucky's lethal-injection protocol is similar to California's three-drug protocol, this 7-2 decision should spell an end to the pricey, frivolous and utterly disingenuous lawsuits filed in California and other states to stall the execution of guilty killers.
Ralph Baze killed two cops serving warrants against him in 1992, and does not regret doing so. Fellow plaintiff Thomas Bowling shot and killed a young couple and wounded their 2-year-old son in 1990.
They're stone-cold killers, so it should be no surprise that their attorneys presented a patently dishonest argument that they do not oppose capital punishment per se, but want the court to order lethal injection by a massive dose of barbiturate. You see, the plaintiffs conceivably might feel pain under the three-drug injection process that starts with barbiturates, is followed by a paralytic agent and finishes with a drug that causes cardiac arrest. Unlike their victims, these killers argue they should not face the possibility of pain.
Of course, if the Big Bench ever were to grant that disingenuous request, attorneys could appeal anew on the grounds that no state had ever used a one-drug protocol.
It is hard to respect the plaintiffs' argument when it plays off of lawmakers' good intentions. As Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, "It is not a little ironic and telling that lethal injection, hailed just a few years ago as the humane alternative in light of which every other method of execution was deemed an unconstitutional relic of the past, is subject to today's challenge." Having failed to persuade courts to overrule capital punishment as unconstitutional "in an exercise of raw judicial power," death-penalty foes turn to "the next best option" that is, "never-ending litigation."
This bad lawyering would have gotten nowhere were it not for bad science. In 2005, the British medical journal The Lancet reported that blood samples taken from executed prisoners showed concentrations of barbiturate that "were lower than that required for surgery in 43 of 49 executed inmates." To their credit, the justices were aware that the so-called study was stacked. Blood samples were taken several hours to days after execution.
Where does Roberts' ruling leave California? In 2006, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel stayed executions in California after entertaining an appeal against the three-drug protocol filed for convicted murderer/rapist Michael Morales.
Dane Gillette, a senior assistant attorney general, expects the ruling to "resolve the Morales federal litigation." (It's too bad a Marin County judge ruled in October that the new protocol proposed to meet Fogel's concerns must be stalled to accommodate public comment.)
While the ACLU is unhappy with the ruling, ACLU donors should rejoice. Now the civil-rights group can save its money for appeals representing innocent clients instead of on laughable briefs that bring credit to no one. Not even the likes of Baze and Bowling.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.
Debra J. Saunders Archives
© 2007, Creators Syndicate
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