Today's News Scan notes the stay of execution granted by a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit to Arizona murderer Joseph Wood so he can litigate his supposed First Amendment right to information about the source of Arizona's execution drugs. The Ninth swiftly denied rehearing en banc with a dissent joined by 11 of the courts active judges. The split was largely but not entirely on party-of-appointment lines, with Clinton appointee Richard Tallman and Obama appointee John Owens joining the dissent and Bush appointee Richard Clifton not joining it.
I have no doubt this case is headed for the Supreme Court. It might be there already.
I have no doubt this case is headed for the Supreme Court. It might be there already.
Chief Judge Kozinski wrote a quirky dissent saying we should forget
about lethal injection and go to firing squad. Blood spatter is okay
with him. No other judge joined this opinion.
I think he is right about getting rid of lethal injection, but he dismisses gas too lightly, in my opinion. The problem with the old gas chamber was the choice of gas, not the method, as previously noted here and here.
I think he is right about getting rid of lethal injection, but he dismisses gas too lightly, in my opinion. The problem with the old gas chamber was the choice of gas, not the method, as previously noted here and here.
Kozinski is an exceptionally bright man afflicted with a bad case of judgeitis -- the malady that leads those with it to think their lifetime job entitles them to hold forth in angst-ridden dictum (in a dissent, no less) with a long, long discussion of their unhinged personal views.