April 18, 2008

Read it and weep. Today, the New York Times gushed, “After a 32 year journey, Justice Stevens renounces capital punishment.” To which I say, “What death penalty?”

Does Justice Stevens or anyone else seriously contend, or even fantasize, that we, in fact, have the death penalty in the United States? Regardless of the no-brainer ruling this week that lethal injection is constitutional, our overall system of capital punishment has been on life support for decades, thanks to Justice Stevens, et al.

All these revelations seem to have been precipitated by this week’s arguments before the Supreme Court regarding the shocking notion that child rapists may be deterred by the prospect of a death sentence, not to mention the import of the resultant societal vindication from such a penalty. Yes, maybe it is time to consider implementing capital punishment that fits the crime and actually promises to deter those who would commit these horrendous crimes. More importantly, in the aftermath of this year’s elections, who will make these decisions?

In his epiphany Justice Stevens observes that, “The time had come to reconsider the justification for the death penalty itself.” I could not agree more, my friend. Why? Because our activist judiciary has effectively undermined the most persuasive rationale for the death penalty—deterrence. Through the judicial equivalent of the legislative filibuster, our courts have created a so-called capital punishment system that is mired in appeals taking upward of 15 years to resolve. 

Does capital punishment deter crime? We may never know. If the death penalty was actually implemented with some timeliness, we might actually find out. But, don’t hold your breath. Better yet, go to the polls this fall.

The death penalty itself was condemned by the Supremes the first time in the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia, only to be raised from the ash heap of history in 1976 by the tenacity of some exceptionally law-abiding folks in Texas in the case of Jurek v. Texas. In spite of the obstacles, the states of Virginia, Oklahoma, Missouri and Florida have joined Texas in being particularly forceful in their support of capital punishment.

If fighting to keep capital punishment as a viable option was not a hurdle high enough, a death penalty averse appellate judiciary thereafter layered time consuming post-judgment appeals and collateral attacks upon an already tedious branch of criminal jurisprudence.

Having been a criminal defense lawyer for over 30 years, I can say that although police and prosecution techniques had been predictably shabby in many death penalty cases, we have now entered into the brave new world of “CSI” techniques that give a new certainty and reliability to the criminal evidentiary process—one in which most Americans now have enough confidence to base the ultimate criminal sanction.

As the American public continues to pay the price for the legacy of the liberal Supremes’ “dumbing down” of the criminal justice system, it is more important than ever that conservatives rally to support a POTUS that will continue to appoint common sense, real world justices to the SCOTUS.

With leftist groups such as the ACLU and People for the American Way alerting their constituencies to the prospect of a high court devoid of liberals—and the New York Times and Los Angles Times ringing the alarm bell—it was evident this week that in this election year all roads lead to the Supreme Court.

Johnnie Byrd is a lawyer and host of “Johnnie Byrd’s Weekend” heard on WGUL-AM 860 in Tampa Bay, FL. Contact Johnnie at johnnie.byrd@hotmail.com.