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Justice Kennedy: Buzzkill!
Today, the Supreme Court listened to arguments concerning the execution of Clarence Hill, a convicted cop killer who received a last-minute reprieve after the Supremes decided to weigh in on whether death row inmates could file last minute appeals and the larger issue of the nature of the execution method. Hill argued that the combination of drugs typically used in executions can cause unnecessary pain before death.
Apparently, now that Alito and Roberts have joined the court, the revelry tends to get a little raucous at times while matters of life and death are discussed, and today the debate was lively and oftentimes contentious. On the one side of the argument, Justice John Paul Stevens argued that the lethal injection procedure used in Florida “would be prohibited on cats and dogs,” and the-always-good-for-a-good-quote Justice Scalia argued that the Constitution doesn’t require painless deaths. “Hanging was not a quick and easy way to go,” he asserted, and though I wasn’t there to see it firsthand, you know he probably had a crooked smile on his face while he was saying it.
At any rate, later on during the arguments the Justices apparently forgot themselves briefly and began laughing at the thought of defense lawyers proposing how their clients would be executed (“Death by marshmallow,” I can only assume). In fact, Justice Kennedy, who is the swing vote on the issue, got all persnickety and reprimanded his fellow justices for laughing. “This is a death case,” Kennedy snapped, crossing his arms and pouting.
Yeah, we hear ya Anthony. But you don’t have to be such a Debbie Downer. I mean, if you can’t laugh at other people’s pain, what can you laugh at anymore? It’s called schadenfreude, man. Look it up.
