Send in the Clowns

Maybe elephants dropped a load on Main Street as Ringling Brothers came to town; while that isn’t the case, don’t take your brown shoes off just yet.  Here in Houston, Texas, Harris County District (Activist) Judge Kevin Fine will hold hearings on the constitutionality of the capital punishment prior to a murder trial in which the defendant could face the death penalty.

The problem with a District Court judge holding these hearings; he has no authority to do so, the State Court of Appeals and Supreme Court having already ruled on this issue. (Activist) Judge Fine’s job is to rule on the admissibility of evidence as pertain to a particular case, not the constitutionality of laws already established.


(Activist) Judge Fine wishes to open this circus with testimony from various groups which oppose capital punishment in order to justify his own anti- capital punishment leanings. I’d written an article last March when this first came to light and mentioned that judges are required to follow the law as written; not legislate from the bench.  This morning I read:


“The first witness called was Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group that has been critical of capital punishment.”

{…}


“Dieter said his group’s review of these exonerations has shown that faulty eyewitness testimony, unreliable informant testimony and false confessions are some of the factors that have contributed to innocent people being wrongfully convicted.”


We might as well open the prison doors and let them all go; witnesses are occasionally unreliable, we shouldn’t trust informants and every now and again a suspect confesses to a crime he/she didn’t commit. Our entire judicial system should be scrapped in favor of a perfect system, one yet to be found; but one which guarantees Utopian results.


While we’re at it (Activist) Judge Fine can decide on other issues which don’t fall under his digression. Perhaps he can hold hearings on the oil industry and pretend to have an open mind on the subject; but stop all drilling for oil since one in a hundred might leak and destroy the world. (Activist) Judge Fine has plenty to do; send in the clowns.


This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal , a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.