The Machinery of Death vs. the Due Process of Law
I discussed yesterday the case of Kenneth S. Smith, whose execution warrant was given the Matador’s Cape by the Supreme Court although the jury voted 11-1 not to give him a capital sentence. The execution ended up not going forward, because the idea that Alabama can “humanely” execute someone is a lie:
The Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution last night by a 6–3 vote, allowing Alabama to kill Kenneth Smith. But state officials badly botched the execution and failed to end Smith’s life. They will likely try again soon. https://t.co/m0GjLTvdw0— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) November 18, 2022
The majority of the Court’s pure bloodthirstiness-over-due-process calculation should really put Dobbs into proper perspective. “Life,” certainly, has nothing to do with it.
One of Bloody Sam Alito’s most nakedly immoral and lawless positions — and the competition is fierce! — is the holding of his opinion in Glossip v. Gross that torture killings by the state do not violate the Eight Amendment if the condemned prisoner cannot identify a non-torturous killing method. Oh, and Glossip is probably factually innocent! I will never forgive any reporter who told their readers that Alito was a harmless moderate, and there were way too many.