Tuesday, January 14, 2003
GEORGE RYAN'S DEATH PENALTY CIRCUS
It's one thing for ideologues to excuse any action that sees their sociopolitical agenda advanced. It's another to see erstwhile fundamentally rational folks like Paul Craig Roberts pen an inexplicable defense TARGET="_top" of a despicable act by a moral midget.
In case you're out of the loop, outgoing Illinois Governor George Ryan bid the state farewell by commuting the death sentence of every single prisoner sitting on Illinois' death row.
I suppose Roberts can be forgiven, for unlike us hapless Illinois residents, he has not been a daily witness to this horrifically corrupt administration's Clintonian near-mastery of calculating nearly every thought, word and activity to maximize his personal and/or political profit.
One's view of the death penalty in particular or the inadequacies of our justice system in general are irrelevant to the fact that George Ryan is not a courageous man, and his was not a courageous act. If inadequacies of the capital punishment process were his main concern, a more proper way to address those concerns would have been to look for such instances on a case-by-case basis. After all, he had an entire term and a Justice Department staff to do so. Instead he waited until the 58th minute of the 11th hour -- after it would do no political damage to his administration -- to implement a one-size-fits-all approach that replaced a set of speculative injustices with a set of real, verifiable injustices.
No, this was no simple act of moral courage. It was an outrageous abuse of discretionary power to broadly implement an ideological agenda while circumventing the conventional political process. If the end justifies the means and executive discretion is no longer venerable, there is nothing to stop future governors from using their pardon power to act as judicial regents. By approving of Ryan's indiscretion to carry out an agenda one favors, one tacitly approves of future governors' indiscretions to carry out agendas one disfavors. Once the dam cracks, breach is imminent.
In Ring #3 of the Ryan Death Penalty Circus was the sham "clemency hearings" held for public consumption. Even after it was clear that he was an unapologetic death penalty opponent, Ryan chose to carry on the charade that he was simply "concerned about integrity of the judicial system." In the process, he put countless dozens of Illinois families through the agony of reliving their horrendous grief through clemency hearings. Their renewed anguish was paraded in front of microphones, TV cameras and photographers for the world to see, all to create the impression that Ryan was still undecided about the death penalty issue. (Ironically, the public spectacle of bawling mothers, spouses, children and siblings steeled Illinois citizens' opposition to clemency for capital murderers.)
Courage? Not one single bit. George Ryan wouldn't know courage if it kicked him in the teeth. This man waited until the last minute to use a discretionary power to indiscreetly implement an ideological agenda while needlessly putting scores of families through unspeakable anguish. These are not deeds of bravery. They are the deeds of a coward.
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It's one thing for ideologues to excuse any action that sees their sociopolitical agenda advanced. It's another to see erstwhile fundamentally rational folks like Paul Craig Roberts pen an inexplicable defense TARGET="_top" of a despicable act by a moral midget.
In case you're out of the loop, outgoing Illinois Governor George Ryan bid the state farewell by commuting the death sentence of every single prisoner sitting on Illinois' death row.
I suppose Roberts can be forgiven, for unlike us hapless Illinois residents, he has not been a daily witness to this horrifically corrupt administration's Clintonian near-mastery of calculating nearly every thought, word and activity to maximize his personal and/or political profit.
One's view of the death penalty in particular or the inadequacies of our justice system in general are irrelevant to the fact that George Ryan is not a courageous man, and his was not a courageous act. If inadequacies of the capital punishment process were his main concern, a more proper way to address those concerns would have been to look for such instances on a case-by-case basis. After all, he had an entire term and a Justice Department staff to do so. Instead he waited until the 58th minute of the 11th hour -- after it would do no political damage to his administration -- to implement a one-size-fits-all approach that replaced a set of speculative injustices with a set of real, verifiable injustices.
No, this was no simple act of moral courage. It was an outrageous abuse of discretionary power to broadly implement an ideological agenda while circumventing the conventional political process. If the end justifies the means and executive discretion is no longer venerable, there is nothing to stop future governors from using their pardon power to act as judicial regents. By approving of Ryan's indiscretion to carry out an agenda one favors, one tacitly approves of future governors' indiscretions to carry out agendas one disfavors. Once the dam cracks, breach is imminent.
In Ring #3 of the Ryan Death Penalty Circus was the sham "clemency hearings" held for public consumption. Even after it was clear that he was an unapologetic death penalty opponent, Ryan chose to carry on the charade that he was simply "concerned about integrity of the judicial system." In the process, he put countless dozens of Illinois families through the agony of reliving their horrendous grief through clemency hearings. Their renewed anguish was paraded in front of microphones, TV cameras and photographers for the world to see, all to create the impression that Ryan was still undecided about the death penalty issue. (Ironically, the public spectacle of bawling mothers, spouses, children and siblings steeled Illinois citizens' opposition to clemency for capital murderers.)
Courage? Not one single bit. George Ryan wouldn't know courage if it kicked him in the teeth. This man waited until the last minute to use a discretionary power to indiscreetly implement an ideological agenda while needlessly putting scores of families through unspeakable anguish. These are not deeds of bravery. They are the deeds of a coward.
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