Judge: Death Penalty Unconstitutional; AG: 'Unabashed Judicial Activism'
In what the attorney general of Texas is describing as a “legally baseless” act of “unabashed judicial activism,” a state trial-court judge has granted a pretrial defense motion that the death penalty be declared unconstitutional in the murder case of John Edward Green Jr., reports the Houston Chronicle.
“It’s safe to assume we execute innocent people,” said District Judge Kevin Fine in his written ruling yesterday, citing the exoneration of more than 200 individuals in death penalty cases nationwide. “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? I don’t think society’s mindset is that way now.”
The ruling, which was made in response to a motion submitted by Green’s lawyers, Bob Loper and Casey Keirnan, is likely to be reversed on appeal, Fine’s decision is unlikely to withstand appellate review, since there is long-standing precedent upholding the death penalty, professor Sandra Guerra Thompson of the University of Houston Law Center tells the newspaper.
But if a judge feels strongly about an issue, “sometimes they’ll grant a motion like this to buck the system, just to stir the waters,” she says.
Asking the jury to apply the death penalty in their 23-year-old client’s case would violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the defense attorneys argued and the judge agreed. They prohibit cruel and unusual punishment and guarantee due process.
A local CBS News affiliate provides a link to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s press release. His office, it says, “has already offered to provide help and legal resources to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office—which is handling the Green prosecution—and will take appropriate measures to defend Texas capital punishment law.”
Earlier coverage:
Click2Houston.com: “Man Charged In Sisters’ Shooting”
