Scott Cobb wrote graciously about the Democrats who stood up against an unconstitutional prevision of HB 8, but I want to give Debbie Riddle some space to defend her over reaching, unconstitutional efforts.
"When I made the decision to author House Bill 8, also known as Jessica's Law, I did so with the single purpose of making Texas safer for our children, and more dangerous for their predators. While the majority of the provisions of House Bill 8 will not be affected by today's ruling, I believe that the Supreme Court has somewhat diluted our effort as a state to provide our children with the strongest possible protection by providing the strongest possible punishment to those who would do them harm."
This is one of the most conservative courts in American history, and they still over turned the provision that allowed for blind retribution.
That being said, Riddle's claim that the court "diluted their effort" to allow the "strongest possible punishment" shows the extreme nature of this Republican Party. Death is an absolute, and the Constitution requires that punishments be fair and equal to the crime that is committed. Clearly, Mrs. Riddle doesn't agree with what our founders wrote.
This is just more proof of how out of touch the Republican Party is in Texas. Instead of working on passing laws to help get kids on CHIP or lower gas prices, we passed a bill that was so egregious, the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional.
In a 5-4 decision today (PDF) authored by Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court has held that a Louisiana statute authorizing the death penalty for those who rape children is unconstitutional if the defendant's acts were not intended to cause death. In so doing, the Court determined that there was "a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape," and that expanding the death penalty to such crimes would be cruel and unusual.
More as it develops and/or with any reactions. I just saw this on CNN right now...
I’ve been chronicling on BOR for quite some time the evolution of Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst’s version of the sexual predator statute known as Jessica’s Law. Currently the Lone Star States version of the statute awaits the signature of Governor Rick Perry.
You’ve seen my evolution on the Texas version of this bill from being a staunch supporter of it to being absolutely against it. I’ve lobbied personally to get amendments to the legislation in order to abolish the statute of limitations and also advocated the removal of the death penalty requirement for second-strike offenders. Bottom line is I’ve concluded that any predator law that calls for the execution of a human being who hasn’t knowingly or willingly taken the life of another human being is unconstitutional because it violates the 8th Amendments Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause. Moreover, I think it completely derails any opportunity to evolve our standard of decency, as Trop v. Dulles mandated in 1958, as a self-proclaimed moral and ethical society.
The unconstitutional predator law championed by Governor David Dewhurst passed the Texas Senate yesterday with an almost unanimous vote. Senator Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, was the only dissenter and I applaud him for that. The bill now moves to a compromise committee to hammer out agreeable details.
I've had an interesting evolution on this legislation throughout the 80th session, but as I've come to do tons of research on it, even become involved in the lobbying for amending the House version, I'm just flat against this statute all together.
The death penalty requirement for a second offense of child rape is not constitutionally proportional to the crime itself. As Senator Ellis rightfully pointed out, considering the growing amount of cases where wrongly convicted individuals are being set free, 13 in Dallas alone, mandating yet another reason to kill someone when you haven't corrected an obviously flawed system is a heinous crime in of itself. You cannot apply the death penalty to non-homicidal cases that do not involve the unjustified taking of human life. There are plenty of Supreme Court decisions to justify this too.
I do have a sense of satisfaction that the Texas House managed to pass an amended version of the Dewhurst driven Jessica's law. I've been working diligently with Their Voice to push for amendments to the law, and my evolution on the bill itself has been evident in my blogs here on BOR. I've gone from 100% behind it,to changing it, and then changing it dramatically. So here are my closing thoughts on what transpired Monday and Tuesday.
