Fox Article On Fiscal Impact on States of Death Penalty Cases

Recently, due to most states still claiming budgetary crises even after the massive stimulus monies which were received by all the states under the Obama Administration and Congress there have been more and more articles directed at Constitutional government duties and provisions which are costing the states and state citizens apparently a bundle.

Today a Fox media article reported such a position with respect to the costs of executing a death row inmate which is straining a great many state budgets, apparently.

However, nowhere in this article, as with so many which are now appearing, has it been pointed out that most of these states would not be facing budgetary crises at all if they also simply constrained themselves to collecting taxation and distributing it first and foremost to provide funding for those legal duties with which they are charged under their state constitutions.

In other words, no matter how much money the states seem to receive from their state citizens in all the levels of taxation also that are in concert with the federal government, it never seems to be enough simply because progressively all states throughout the nation have provided freebies and gimmees also to their selected sovereign subjects at the cost of the state citizenry.

In discretionary expenditures more and more, while then screaming poverty when it comes to providing funding for the public duties and functions which they ARE actually responsible for.

Such is the case with this scenario, it appears to me, along with other more capitalist and selfish motivations.

Yes, death penalty cases are costly due to the number of appeals that are available and accorded most death row inmates.

And unfortunately, the option of the death penalty due to lobbying efforts of various victims groups have expanded even the applicability of that punishment for crimes in which there are or may have been mitigating circumstances for the actual death or death(s) involved.

Many of which clearly were not without precipitating circumstances or motivation, or were not clearly committed upon strangers or the public at large with clear premeditation ("aforethought") involved.

Expanding this ulimate penalty to include technically even many cases of second and third degree murder has resulted in more and more criminals now on death row to begin with and many of whom were convicted by juries which were not in any manner unbiased and independent due to slanted reporting and media coverages such as those that occur on programs such as Nancy Grace, who hardly can be called a journalist but is using her program more as a forum to continue her career as a prosecuting attorney using the national viewing audience as her juries and presenting spins and innuendos in many instances as fact for ratings for her bosses, the clearly commercial corporate media.

Left out is also the fact that there are other crimes now that were in the past misdemeanor offenses which have now been recategorized as felonies due also to pressure from victims groups and commercial interests.

Such as the low level DUIs throughout the country, which involve no property loss or damage, or injury but have escalated into jail sentences which have crowded then the misdemeanor local jails and facilities, and with punishments now that are so cruel and unusual and involving in many states level upon level of punishment, they in no manner reflect the common law provisions of our Constitution in having the punishment fit the crime.

There is even a move now to shift those that involve involuntary manslaughter to second degree murder charges simply due to the fact that the driver of the vehicle was "legally" intoxicated under those low level DUI provisions.

When many of those deaths that keep being brought out to manipulate the public sentiments by the insurance industry and MADD, which has become a temperance organization at its root, involve teens or new drivers where even inexperience or driver error on their part also factor in to some of those deaths, many of which occur late at night on the weekends.

Or during prom week.

As far as the self-interests of the state, it would make sense that an organization such as Fox, which promotes basically British style conservatism in global corporate profits and interests as also being part and parcel of the intent of our founders, which clearly were not hence the Boston Tea Party, would be promoting abolition of the death penalty also using cost/benefit ratios for the state kitties as their means and methods.

Since, after all, many states have also now privatized their local and state jails, and also the federal government has been making moves in this direction, in order to gain further tax revenues and also "create more jobs" in the private sector.

Most of those canteens in the local jails are also privatized at this point, and prior to arrest, of course, all monies of the detainee are seized in order to also feed those local jail canteens and their profit margins and budgets.

Many of which, not surprisingly, are owned by local sheriffs or other law enforcement personnel, in addition to local impound lots.

Which is also why more and more driving offenses are also calling for impoundment of vehicles in many states for non-moving violations even, such as failure to provide proofs of insurance or driver's licenses, even though that information can also be verified through all those newfangled computers most officers in metro cities now have in their vehicles, thanks to those stimulus monies given for the tech industries profits.

Which actually are in violation of the due process protections since no property of a citizens can be seized without a judicial order or warrant, or trial by jury especially since there are many in this country still who hold that due to the fact that even most major metropolitan areas public transportation systems are inadequate, at best, driving is a right and not a privilege at all.

In fact, with all the punishments now that are deemed also by the government attached to those driver's licenses also under the bogus implied consent laws, driving is actually becoming more and more a liability and not a privilege at all, especially due to the fact that the penalties for most minor offenses in this country are now exceeding those for criminal fraud, theft, and bodily injury.

It seems crime in America now is seen as a job and economic stimulus for both the government and those on Wall Street, since also many shares of those "services" and contractors providing both security and merchandise to those jails are listed on the global stock exchange.

The death penalty is clearly Constitutional, but the increase in costs has actually occurred, once again, due to both unlawful privatization by the states of our jails and also the corruption of our state legislatures, penal system and judiciary in not letting the punishments fit the crimes, in most instances, or statutorily ill defining or placing undue barriers on the jury or not sufficiently regulating those commercial media outlets in the name of "free speech" rather than protection of the rights of the accused to a fair and impartial trial by jury, and also affording this extreme option based on then emotion or public pressure from "foreign" sources in the national media pay cable networks.

And it is clear by the Fox spins once again, more profit can be made on those prisoners for state budgets and commercially for the now penal industrial complex, for life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Even for serial killers, murders and rapists without even the remotest possibility of rehabilitation based upon the circumstances and true factual evidence of the crimes themselves as premeditated, without any evidence of any mitigating factors or clear relationship to the victim, and in cold blood, it would appear.

And this, once again, just goes to prove that it is the almighty buck, and not justice, which has now become the focus at both the state, and federal level, and its global corporate policy maker bankers and media moguls.

The interests of justice, fundamental to this country's foundation, is nowhere in the reporting as taken from the reporter's position of state's interests, the actual position the states and this reporter are taking in the reporting itself, which is socialistic in nature, and contrary to the common law for heinous crimes such as first degree, premeditated murder as opposed to second degree (crimes of passion) or voluntary or involuntary manslaughter (auto accidents, accidental deaths).

Cut out the fat from all state's operating expenditures and budgets, and the clear Constitutional intent with respect to this punishment under the common law, and those costs would change if constrained to the intent of the founders based in the common law for such egregious criminal conduct committed by one citizen against another.

In this writer's view, It is not housing death row inmates that are breaking the state's budgets, or the cost of those appeals (which, granted, are also liberally given in some states even outside of evidence which was not heard in the original trials by those juries, or new evidence) but their unconstitutional focuses and budgetary expenditures most of all.

Which position it would appear meets or exceeds such a governmental position, based upon what is now occurring throughout the nation even after all that funny money was provided to those states in now the states increasing the tax burden on the citizens in concert with the federal government, the legal common law standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt," for any such jury determined conviction in a capital criminal matter.

Such representations by the state(s) and state representatives appear to me to be along the lines of criminal fraud or consumer fraud against the public, in and of itself, without taking the obvious in just why most states are facing these budget crises year after year into account.

Could there be underlying motivations for this article, rather than "fair and balanced" reporting?

I mean "privatizing everything" does seem to be the British Conservative/Libertarian positions, which are just as extra-Constitutional as the far left winger socialists in assuming and expanding government power and functions outside Constitutional provision, whether federal or state without the consent of the governed per the 9th.

Which positions then are an unconstitutional transfer of governmental powers, also leaving the citizenry without recourse except then to the "state actor" public/private corporate interest at higher costs overall in increasing the backlog in our courts, and their costs, and then the increased costs for some of the contractual provisions even in those public/private partnerships that the taxpayers then have no knowledge of - and many of which extend from legislative session to legislative session, rather than annually to begin with, creating a snowballing effect of greater and greater budgetary deficits or federally in the overall deficits in the process, just as those trade agreements and peace treaties now run through successive Congressional sessions and even extend from Administration to Administration at this point.

Which is why the Obama Administration and 111th Congress is now holding the bag for all those Bush Administration and Congressional errors, as Bush ended up holding the bag for all those Clinton Administration and Congressional errors.

In a representative government, just how can all these treaties and governmental contracts extend longer than one year, so that the voices of the people can then truly be heard when they become aware of some of these egregious Constitutional violations which for the most part occur after the fact due to more and more closed door sessions and bargaining between these two mainstream politicay parties, such as with this latest travesty, the health care sector stimulus?

I'll let the reader decide, based upon the "fair and balanced" reporting of not simply Fox, but the "corporate" commercially owned mainstream media in general at this point - print, cable and internet for that ad revenue and their bottom line corporate profits also most of all, along with some of the individual state legislators whose job it appears most simply do not even begin to understand.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/03/27/just-cost-death-penalty-killer-state-budgets/

Texas Judge Rules Death Penalty Unconstitutional?

There's a storm brewing in Texas, it appears, over a recent ruling by a state district court judge in Houston on a murder trial.

Justice Kevin Fine, a Democrat, made a pre-trial ruling in Texas court that the death penalty was unconstitutional under Texas law.

Although his position appears to be not in accordance with the wording of the Constitution itself (U.S., that is, which would take precedence in all death penalty cases), but for moral reasons stating that it was logical to assume that there had been innocent people put to death in the past, and that he didn't think this was society's mindset right now.

"Selective" governmental initiated socialism once again rears its ugly head, since there are many in this country that would heartily disagree, if a clear reading of the Constitution itself is given any weight.

With all the criticism that has come down upon the judiciary for ruling from the bench for political reasons most of all rather than "legal" ones with judges being cognizant of just what the "law" actually is in such instances, this actually does take the cake, in my opinion.

Although the press once again went a little off the deep end in headlining a great many of the stories with a description of the judge involved as "tatted" and an ex-cocaine addict.

Of course, the hypocricy at this point in our history was missed if such a personal observation were to be used by the media in its reporting on this judge's ruling. Since it is interesting that a judge that is an admitted ex-addict (engaging in felony conduct under current Texas law) is now serving on the bench, where a great many of those that are or have been convicted under Texas law of felonies are not even afforded an opportunity to vote for the rest of their lives even after serving their time.

It makes one wonder with all the clear language in the Constitution yet his stated reasons given for his holding, if just maybe he might be suffering from what the 60's generation termed "flashbacks," or possibly his brain quite possibly affected if he was a heavy, long term user of that substance which definitely has a chemical affect on the brain.

However, what was missing in the reporting is that as an elected official he is also affiliated through a political party that has taken a platform and stand in the past against the death penalty throughout the country for any reason under pressure and lobbying from such "global" groups as Amnesty International, the Innocense Project (out of New York, a "civil rights" group headed by lawyers and as such under federal laws which have been passed taxpayer funded through reimbursements for legal fees, yet incorporated in New York it appears, but with also branches internationally) and many others.

Since that statute providing for reimbursement for legal fees incurred in bringing civil rights actions, a plethora of these lawyer lead groups have emerged also engaging in national then lobbying efforts as a sideline, rather than the independent or small pro bono groups of the past whose fees are strictly provided by private donations.

To state that it is "unconstitutional" under the Texas or U.S. Constitution rather than in his party's view, "immoral", is a blatant redefinition, once again, of the English language and the 14th Amendment.

And the fact that the death penalty was handed down in many, many instances by those founders for reasons other than capital murder.

Such as treason on that Constitution. Which actually is the highest criminal offense by an elected or appointed government official, even higher than capital murder.

He used the "due process" clause somehow in his ruling, however, the 14th amendment clearly simply states that a criminal in this country that is accused of a heinous crime involving the taking of another citizen's life, or their property even (since horse thieves were also handed down the death penalty in Texas and in many states throughout the nation, theft of personal property was also a major capital criminal offense), an American is entitled to not "mob violence," but a review and trial by a jury of his peers (due process) in the state and jurisdiction in which the alleged crime occurred, and a chance to then face his accusers and hear and repute the evidence against him.

I am unaware of just how the provisions in Texas's criminal code are written since now the states have taken it upon themselves also to either expand, or water down, the U.S. Constitution in this respect also progressively through their legislative processes, but whether or not the death penalty is Constitutional or not since it is actually addressed within the language of the Constitution itself, speaks for itself.

Or the fact that "res ipsa loquitur" (the thing as it speaks) is the common law provision which is supposed to be rule of law with respect to Constitutional interpretation clearly also was the founders intent as it is a contract between the government itself and its people, and the Bill of Rights were meant to give the people, not the government, the ultimate power in any such matter involving ANY civil or criminal offense committed by a citizen in this country.

And solidified by the 14th's clear language then prohibiting any citizen from being deprived of his "life, liberty or property" without such a right to due process, or that "trial by jury."

It appears to me that more and more the judiciary are using court rules, and legal shennagians in order to actually circumvent and neutralize the power of the jury in this country more and more.

First, by removing even that right for many criminal charges, not to mention civil offenses in ever increasing numbers, the most recent of which are now the low level DUI and "social drinking" taxes and charges with those per se laws based on a proven fallable method of testing, when unless there is property damage or bodily injury and direct victim involved is truly really under the intent of the founders and common law also, a civil offense actually to begin with.

The breathalyzer, which does not measure blood alcohol at all, but measures the concentration of alcohol (or any number of other agents) in a person's breath.

Which, when using or eating any number of other substances, other than alcohol, can affect those test results tremendously.

In fact, the interlock devices that are manufactured and ordered to be used by many who have been arrested or found themselves "guilty until proven innocent" in such matters warns not to eat bread (the yeast can affect the interlock device with a false reading).

But in the instance of the death penalty in this country, I would more understand this judge's ruling at an earlier time in our history, when the evidentiary standards for a death penalty case were much, much more lenient than in most state courts today.

The standard, after all, is "beyond a reasonable doubt," and what has occurred, however, is that more and more high profile crimes are being tried in the media and politics and public opinions are being swayed even before many of these individuals have had the opportunity to answer or even make their pleas.

The lines between the "public's right to know" and protecting the accused have gone by the wayside when the local news media is so hard pressed for news these days due to competition and "corporate" ownership concerned with the bottom line most of all than ethical standards, that most of the local news stations are more similar to Entertainment Tonight than actual news sources so biased, sensationalized and gossipy is their coverage.

And, after all, there are several different charges that should be placed before a jury in any murder trial in many instances, and not determined by a judge or the state prosecutor's office acting independently to begin with.

Voluntary or involuntary manslaughter (auto accidents, etc.), murder in the second degree (crimes of passion, precipitated or between individuals known to each other) and murder in the first degree (pre-meditated, unprecipitated murder).

This case apparently has to do with the shooting death of a woman in Houston during a robbery in which there were, apparently, witnesses to what actually occurred - an adult sister and her own children.

Now that many of these states have privatized their state prisons and are receiving federal grant monies and profits on the prison population by the head, I would expect that we will see more and more of such rulings as most of these states attempt to squeeze every dollar out of the public they can since people, even prisoners, are now commerce.

I hate to dispute this judge's stated reasons, there are now throughout the nation more and more minor offenses being criminalized in order to increase that prison population for revenue purposes as a "mitigating" factor in why our prisons are now bulging at the seams, and mostly with low level misdemeanor offenders guilty of actually victimless crimes at that.

Or more and more of such instances are occurring in order to also bulk up local court's budgets due to the fact that the Bar Association itself lobbied for a law providing for legal fee awards on their behalf for any and all cases involving civil rights actions, and this case is being prosecuted by the county attorney's office and a public defender it appears representing the accused.

So this off the wall rendering could be and most likely is, in my opinion based on the information available through our somewhat sensationalized media, politically motivated, since now the state can also gain revenue from the lengthy federal appeals process over this judge's bench ruling which obviously blatantly flies in the face of the Constitution's clear language and make money for the state coffers then while so doing.

Harris County apparently is a county which leads the nation in death penalty cases, and appears just may be one of the more poorly funded districts in the state to begin with due to the amount of poorer or indigent people living in that county.

Maybe their share of the stimulus wasn't enough, since Governor Perry refused some of those sums according to his most recent election campaign jargon, or maybe those sums which were handed out for state budgetary purposes just didn't get to Harris County but stayed in Austin.

After all, our entire country's government at this point is so unconstitutional, taking such a position in light of all the Constitutional violations going on due to the entire convoluted framework as outside Constitutional intent and parameters of our government makes this position both questionable, and almost laughable.

I would agree, however, with this judge that most likely there have been individuals that have been put to death in this country who MAY have been innocent of first degree murder, or unprecipitated murder as under the common law definitions demanding the ultimate penalty under the law - forfeiture of life.

But we aren't putting to death horse thieves anymore (or car thieves), and with the number of appeals now available to most death row inmates, there have also been those that have decided not to pursue the appeals process and even waived it.

I do feel that such drastic punishment should be reserved for those that are deemed by a jury, upon factual evidence and eyewitness testimony or truly "weighted" evidence, and should be used only according to the stated law: against those who, for whatever reason, murder innocent people as in the case of a robbery gone wrong as this appears on the surface, or many of these serial killers who cannot be rehabilitated in any way to be trusted to live among society, or at the very least, incarcerated without the possibility of parole, when there are no "mitigating" circumstances leading up to it.

But "unconstitutional," only if we are again, judicially redefining the English language and not the words of the founders or their intent since the 14th only cements what was their clear purpose at the signing as a government "of the people."

It is the jury that has the right to throw out the death penalty, if they so deem the facts of the case at hand demands it or is "societally" unacceptable in their view under the circumstances, and weight should also be given to the victim's family in such a rendering as the actual victims of the particular crime and who those prosecutors are actually supposed to be their "clients" acting for the victim's family members, state and its citizens on their behalf.

And without a clear vote of the people of Texas in any event, it would seem our judiciary is getting more and more bold in some of their fabrications and renderings now at every level balanced against their oaths of office, since the wording is pretty clear.

Or corrupted by the public opinion polls and media itself in now how many outside "globally" focused agitators and groups are getting involved in U.S. political matters to begin with, since it appears global socialism and "international" law rather than our Constitution's language itself is a trend that is also occurring at the highest level in some rather recent Supreme Court rulings and renderings.

Protection of the accused American is foremost under our stated Constitutuion. And the jury was and is intended to be that protection, baring any corruption of the jury itself.

And if it is "cruel and unusual" punishment insofar as premeditated homicide is concerned, then our jails are full of people at this point that are being incarcerated without even the right to trial by juries in a great many misdemeanor offenses more and more, and some of these misdemeanor offenders have died in local jails and prisons that were "cruel and unusual" in their facilities to begin with.

Dehydrations of low level offenders recently in some in the West, even. Where the "punishments" now truly do not fit those crimes, and made without any review or oversight of judicial renderings rather than at the will of the people based on the evidence.

Gee, maybe he should have been the judge ruling over the Teri Schiavo matter in Florida. If it is immoral or "unconstitutional" and "cruel and unusual" punishment to sentence a convicted murderer to death, then just what was it to sentence a handicapped, innocent 40 year old woman?

Where was Amnesty International then, I ask?

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/03/05/tatted-up-texas-judge-declares-death-penalty-unconstitutional/tab/article/

Yet, this is what is going on in Harris County with respect to misdemeanor offenders with outstanding mostly civil court traffic violations:

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Harris-County-sweeping-minor-offenders-in-Great-Texas-Warrant-Roundup-86726392.html