perfidy

Jeez... this is the week of light posting and crappy headlines. Sorry about that. It's the first week of school, and the particular Perfidous Indoctrination Center I work for is in full swing, as the Evil Geniuses of the future pursue their degrees in Evil Medicine, Mendacious Lawyering, Interrogative Dentistry, and Advanced Theoreticial Malingering.

But whatever. I see that the 9th Circuit Court, in a rare high-profile decision that doesn't make me grit my teeth as they skate back and forth over the line between reason and excess, have overturned 111 death penalty sentences imposed by judges (not juries) in three states.

Great. The facts of the main case that this decision hinged on are outrageous enough, without getting into the utterly nondemocratic, old-school-Whiggish phenomenon of one magistrate deciding the ultimate fate of a defendant. From the article:

The case that led to the appeals court ruling was described in the decision as "the raw material from which legal fiction is forged."

According to the ruling, that "raw material" included:

• A police tip from the defendant's mother-in-law based on her daughter's "extra-sensory perception"

• An alleged romantic encounter between one of the defense attorneys with the first prosecutor in the case during negotiations on a possible plea agreement

• The judge imposing the death sentence while allegedly under the influence of marijuana. The judge was later disbarred.

Jeebus. The best case for jury sentencing I have ever read.

This is a good point for me to discuss why, in my political-science naivete, I am a self-described "centrist" (Buckethead would write that, "handwringing anklebiter," and he wouldn't be wrong). My personal ethical and moral systems make me ambivalent about the death penalty. While I am in favor of the death penalty when applied by jury to the most horrible of capital crimes, I feel it is meted out too liberally and for too many offenses. Regardless of any cost/benefit analyses which show that keeping a multiple-murderer locked up for life costs a fortune whereas killing them is cheap, I don't like to measure life by that metric.

The point at which my support of the death penalty breaks down is where my faith in humanity breaks down. Lassiez-faire is a great idea in theory, but at some point, somebody is going to do something completely shit-headed that ruins the party for other people. Circumstances like the aforementioned capital case, which apparently hinged on psychic evidence, for example, make me gibber and howl in fury. If a person's life is in the balance, I feel that a standard of evidence beyond "no reasonable doubt" should apply-- there should be ironclad proof. Obviously psychic evidence doesn't make this cut. Yet, here it apparently did. Exhibit A in shit-headed party ruining.

There's a line, let's call it the "shithead line," beyond which my nanny-state instincts step in and I want to buy the world a helmet. A similar argument applies to, say, capital markets, since we're talking about capital things today. An unregulated market is theoretically "fair," as long as all players are assumed to be rational and optimally situated to take advantage of opportunities. But neither circumstance really applies. The "shithead line" has been crossed many, many times in the last few years by companies I'm sure I don't need to mention. On the near side of that line, I prefer a lightly regulated market. On the far side of it, I prefer the swift hammer of armed response.

However, my rational mind understands that buying the world a helmet would cost a bundle and break the bank, thereby doing more harm than the high-minded good that was originally intended. A balance must be struck between swift-hammer justice and other regulation, and just letting people do what they think is in their best interest. The constant question for me is to clarify just where that line falls.

But I digress. Regarding the death penalty, I have been heartened over the last few years to see a serious inquiry into how death sentences are given out-- first in Illinois, and now at the Federal level. Perhaps it will lead to a clarification of the shithead line as pertains to capital punishment. Life is precious, and even though I'm no Christian (and I'll see YOU in hell), I feel that even the worst among us deserve small mercies, especially if a little more attention to process keeps innocent (that is, less guilty) people from being put to death.

Psychic evidence, indeed. . . goddamn twinkie defense rassen rissen d'hoy glaven