Comments on: Judge Pregerson’s Graphic Response To The Death Penalty http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/03/a_graphic_respo.html The Law, the Universe, and Everything Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:18:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: danielle http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/03/a_graphic_respo.html/comment-page-1#comment-65191 danielle Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:56:58 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2007/03/judge-pregersons-graphic-response-to-the-death-penalty.html#comment-65191 i think that the death penalty should be used, but i have heard that in some cases innocent people have ben put to death. so maybe im not so sure on the whole thing. i think that the death penalty should be used, but i have heard that in some cases innocent people have ben put to death. so maybe im not so sure on the whole thing.

]]> By: dillion http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/03/a_graphic_respo.html/comment-page-1#comment-54924 dillion Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:22:09 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2007/03/judge-pregersons-graphic-response-to-the-death-penalty.html#comment-54924 BOOB BOOB

]]> By: cosim http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/03/a_graphic_respo.html/comment-page-1#comment-54923 cosim Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:46:02 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2007/03/judge-pregersons-graphic-response-to-the-death-penalty.html#comment-54923 Part of the rationale for certain advocates of capital punishment entails a condemned person <i>understanding</i> his fate; not as something he acquiesces to, but as something he, by his murderous actions, demands. (Perhaps a simplification in many ways, but I think it's fair enough to say that G.W.F. Hegel subscribes to that view, for example). Such advocates believe that in such a manner, capital punishment (ironically, paradoxically) honors the humanity in the condemned. Part of Harry Pregerson's concern no doubt is directed at a human being addressing another human being, "not to a discarded piece of flesh." The image concluding Pregerson's dissent seems to be the ultimate rejoinder to the technocratic jurisprudence against which I take Pregerson to be rebelling; that "human body is the best picture of the human soul." (Ludwig Wittgenstein). Against all of the procedural mumbo jumbo there is at high noon a debased body, a sick soul. But Pregerson is justly irate because Arizona denied a human being his humanity. He says - rightly, I feel - that you can kill a man, but you can't strip him of his humanity. But that's what Arizona seems to be getting away with. What Pregerson saw, and what his fellow judges evidently did not, was a simple case of the technical law not being necessarily just. "In Hell there will be nothing but law, and due process will be meticulously observed." (Grant Gilmore). Part of the rationale for certain advocates of capital punishment entails a condemned person understanding his fate; not as something he acquiesces to, but as something he, by his murderous actions, demands. (Perhaps a simplification in many ways, but I think it’s fair enough to say that G.W.F. Hegel subscribes to that view, for example).

Such advocates believe that in such a manner, capital punishment (ironically, paradoxically) honors the humanity in the condemned. Part of Harry Pregerson’s concern no doubt is directed at a human being addressing another human being, “not to a discarded piece of flesh.”

The image concluding Pregerson’s dissent seems to be the ultimate rejoinder to the technocratic jurisprudence against which I take Pregerson to be rebelling; that “human body is the best picture of the human soul.” (Ludwig Wittgenstein). Against all of the procedural mumbo jumbo there is at high noon a debased body, a sick soul. But Pregerson is justly irate because Arizona denied a human being his humanity. He says – rightly, I feel – that you can kill a man, but you can’t strip him of his humanity. But that’s what Arizona seems to be getting away with.

What Pregerson saw, and what his fellow judges evidently did not, was a simple case of the technical law not being necessarily just. “In Hell there will be nothing but law, and due process will be meticulously observed.” (Grant Gilmore).

]]> By: Rick Garnett http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/03/a_graphic_respo.html/comment-page-1#comment-54922 Rick Garnett Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:59:36 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2007/03/judge-pregersons-graphic-response-to-the-death-penalty.html#comment-54922 Hi Dan -- thanks for posting that picture. For what it's worth: Like you, I believe it is crucial that the death penalty's use (which, I believe, is constitutional) be constrained by, and imposed via, demanding, heightened procedural safeguards. And, I think that a death-row inmate's decision to waive challenges to his sentence can be entirely reasonable. I don't, though, think there's any moral right to "terminate one's own life." Hi Dan — thanks for posting that picture. For what it’s worth: Like you, I believe it is crucial that the death penalty’s use (which, I believe, is constitutional) be constrained by, and imposed via, demanding, heightened procedural safeguards. And, I think that a death-row inmate’s decision to waive challenges to his sentence can be entirely reasonable. I don’t, though, think there’s any moral right to “terminate one’s own life.”

]]> By: Helsge http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/03/a_graphic_respo.html/comment-page-1#comment-54921 Helsge Fri, 16 Mar 2007 10:39:37 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2007/03/judge-pregersons-graphic-response-to-the-death-penalty.html#comment-54921 "It raises the question fourteen judges applying objective law could not reach: is this sentencing hearing a moment Americans can be proud of?" Could not reach? Or rather, was not a question that our democracy entrusts to unelected judges? “It raises the question fourteen judges applying objective law could not reach: is this sentencing hearing a moment Americans can be proud of?”

Could not reach? Or rather, was not a question that our democracy entrusts to unelected judges?

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