In his concurrence in Kansas v. Marsh, No.04-1170,(6/26/6), Justice Scalia provides some lively reading on the validity of some of the oft-quoted anti-death penalty materials. Worth a read whatever your point of view.

Try this: "There exists in some parts of the world sanctimonious criticism of America's death penalty, as somehow unworthy of civilized society. (I say sanctimonious, because most of the countries to which these finger-waggers belong had the death penalty themselves until recently--and indeed, many of them would still have it if the democratic will prevailed.)" And so he goes on.....

[This message was edited by John Stride on 06-27-06 at .]

Here's a link to the opinion(s), for those who are interested:

Kansas v. Marsh

okay, i'll post something.

i love the fact that he's able to refer (though not explicitly) to both CSI and Martin Luther in the same opinion. it kind of reminds me of one of Judge Cochran's opinions trying to give prosecutors information on how to respond to certain issues. it's refreshing to see someone respond (in a court opinion no less) to sweeping generalizations such as . . . the number of false verdict is "probably disproportionately high in capital cases." having scalia go through the data underlying such a statement i think is very instructive.

i think it's also nice to have the real debate in the court brought to the fore. souter's opinion seems lay bare what many of us already knew from cases like Miller-El, Atkins, and Roper, that there are at least four justices on the court hat want to do away with the death penalty. So, whatever side you're on, don't forget to vote in 2008.

I'm not sure which part I like best. Showing an interest in federalism is refreshing, but gotta love when he calls the dissenters' hand re: innocent people are being executed.