If you accept the conservative definition that judges who uphold and enforce the constitutional or statutory rights of those accused or convicted of crimes are "soft on crime", then the answer is yes. As in so many other instances, the conservatives have repeated this ludicrous mantra so often that the public has come to believe it. They have created this fantasy of liberal judges sitting around their breakfast tables eating their Wheaties and wondering how they can spend the day setting some criminal free. Judges who uphold the Constitution do not enable, encourage or enhance crime, and doing so does not make them "soft on crime." They are merely following their sworn oaths.
The Supreme Court has ruled in the case of Hank Skinner that he has the right to pursue DNA testing under federal civil rights laws and is not limited to the traditional remedy of habeas corpus. The ruling does not grant him the tests, but rather merely provides an avenue to pursue them. But what is truly baffling about this case is the need for Supreme Court review.
Mr. Skinner, convicted of a triple murder, sought DNA testing -- the results of which may have confirmed his guilt and led to his execution or established his innocence and led to his exoneration. No harm could possibly come from the results. The expenses were underwritten by others, but nonetheless, his requests were blocked and thwarted by every prosecutor and court along the way to the Supreme Court. What would have seemed a "no-brainer" to everyone, literally became a Supreme Court case.
There also is a very interesting back story. The Medill Innocence Project of Northwestern University (along with other dedicated individuals and organizations) was extremely active in this case including obtaining a stay of Mr. Skinner's execution 30 minutes before it was to take place. The Medill Project is involved in a similar case involving Anthony McKinney convicted of murder 30 years ago. In an astonishing and unprecedented move, the prosecutor, the New York Times reports, "subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, and email messages of the journalism students." Rather than focusing on the claims of someone possibly innocent and wrongfully incarcerated for 30 years, the dispute over these extraordinary subpoenas has gone on for years, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and causing friction between the University and Prof.
David Protess and the Medill Project. Why the media is not up-in-arms over this is a mystery to me.
In my view, as I said in an earlier post: "It is a direct attack upon those who engage in this worthy activity, invades their privacy and serves to intimidate and discourage this important and courageous service to our system of justice." Resisting efforts to allow evidence which may free a convicted person facing execution is difficult enough to understand, but to personally attack and investigate those who seek to free that person is reprehensible. Both efforts promote injustice rather than seek justice.
The ideal of Justice denied, in favor of the easy resolution of justice achieved.
Bottomline, this subpoena is all about protecting a brotherhood of corrupt Illinois state's attorneys.
I would not be surprised if Alvarez was chosen by the brotherhood to issue the subpoena because she was among the few Democratic state's attorneys in the state; her action could not be blamed on partisanship. She was also the new kid on the block and wouldn't be accused of harboring a grudge.
This plot against Medill began shortly after a post-conviction petition on behalf of McKinney. The Chicago Sun Times editorial heralding Protess, "Alvarez Should Speed Justice for McKinney," poured salt on the womb.
Police brutality looks to have played a role in McKinney's conviction. Ironically, Alvarez called the "subject of abusive cops" a top priority while she was on the campaign trail.
The history is there for anyone willing to read it. To date, no journalist and certainly no authority, has been willing to address the brotherhood. That in itself is a story.
What ever happened to Justice....Ethics....The Common Good?
The Dysfunctionally Corrupt American Legal System is the greatest hazard to the American People.
Skinner was winding his way through the Texas court system. THAT is why it went to the SCOTUS.
Texas has murdered at least 4 men in the last 25 years. One of them was on The Deciders watch as the governator.
The current fool in Texa... Rich Perry.... disbanded a review panel charged with reviewing cases that may have convicted innocent people of murder. The report... still being held by one of his toadies, was devastating to the prosecutor, and the state in particular.
The good news for those of us who oppose the death penalty is that Illinois abolished it on Wednesday and that Governor Quinn went beyond the prospecitve legislation and commuted the sentences of the 15 individuals on death row. My home state of Connecticut is poised to also abolish the death penalty for future cases this year, most likely after the second Cheshire home invasion trial sentences the second suspect to death.
The Supreme Court review was necessary, since there was a circuit split with the 2nd, 7th, 9th and 11th Circuits finding that claims seeking DNA testing can be brought under 42 USC §1983 and the 4th and 5th Circuits finding such claims cannot be brought under this section. Their decision was limited to this very narrow question. As Justice Ginsburg, writing for the court, pointed out "We note, however, that the Court’s decision in Osborne severely limits the federal action a state prisoner may bring for DNA testing. Osborne rejected the extension of substantive due process to this area, and left slim room for the prisoner to show that the governing state law denies him procedural due process."
Wait a minute - what am I saying - I forgot that upwardly mobile prosecutors build their careers on convictions, wrongful or not, and so do the dimwitted police, so they can be seen by the dronelike masses as doing their job.
Silly me - what's the killing of a few innocents between friends, right?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judge-h-lee-sarokin/justice-thomas-silent-and_b_823192.html
"Blue Collar" Criminals fill our profiteering Penal System which leads the world in per capita incarceration rates - shameful!
...while...
"White Collar" Criminals purchase their own "justice" aka get out of jail free cards and pay the graft to the toxic American Legal System - shameless!
In America there is a two-tier Crime System defined by ca$h and political connections....so much for American Rule of Law and Justice - a mockery.
State legislators have been going after legal aid groups, e.g., those in Northwestern University, not so much for trying to exonerate prisoners but for succeeding.
I hope that the precedent is followed appropriately by lower court judges.
It's a sick country.
It's narcissism at its worst; and while there are many DAs that are quite ethical and indeed are in search of the truth, there are many who are out to get the "job done" as quickly as possible, which often means cutting corners, finger-pointing, and in some cases, wholesale fraud.