Umm...what?

[lewisipso]

Texas Judge Says Death Penalty Unconstitutional

A Texas judge in the county that sends more inmates to death row than any other in the nation has declared the death penalty unconstitutional.

State District Judge Kevin Fine made the ruling Thursday in a pre-trial motion in a capital murder case, saying he could assume that innocent people have been executed. He is now facing a torrent of criticism from a string of high-profile Texans including Governor Rick Perry.

Fine, a Democrat who is heavily tattooed and says he is a recovering alcoholic and former cocaine user, answered some of the criticism on Friday during a court hearing. He denied accusations that he was legislating from the bench and said there was no precedent to guide him in resolving the issues raised by defense attorneys in a case involving a man accused of fatally shooting a Houston woman and wounding her sister in June 2008.

The motion was one of many submitted by defense attorneys Bob Loper and Casey Keirnan arguing Texas' death penalty is unconstitutional for their client, John Edward Green Jr.

Fine said in his ruling Thursday that it is safe to assume innocent people have been executed.

"Are you willing to have your brother, your father, your mother be the sacrificial lamb, to be the innocent person executed so that we can have a death penalty so that we can execute those who are deserving of the death penalty?" he said. "I don't think society's mindset is that way now."

The decision is almost certain to be overturned by appellate courts in Texas, the country's most active death penalty state.

[Ace]

Former cocaine user...nuf said.

[countybear]

If this moron on the bench admits to being a 'former' cocaine user, shouldn't he then (in all interests of fairness and justice) sign affidavits as to his activities and overt violations of the law, stand trial himself, be disbarred, then sentenced for his crimes?

I guess when the President of the United States openly admits to the possession and use of cocaine, that just makes it alright for everyone to be a 'former' something-or-another... (without any penalty of course).

Of course, we live in a society where things are only illegal when one gets caught. This laughable notion erodes the very basis of ideals like honor and integrity. L'est we return to having some dignity, especially our leaders... some sense of truth and justice, we will face a reckoning.

[Xiphos]

Fine, a Democrat who is heavily tattooed and says he is a recovering alcoholic and former cocaine user, answered some of the criticism on Friday during a court hearing. He denied accusations that he was legislating from the bench and said there was no precedent to guide him in resolving the issues raised by defense attorneys in a case involving a man accused of fatally shooting a Houston woman and wounding her sister in June 2008.

It's not like the Supreme Court has set any precedents on this topic.

[pgg]

Fucketh himmeth

[Cidp24]

<--- (That's free speech, you know.)