Supreme Court Cleans Up After 9th Circuit
There should be two Supreme Courts, one to reverse the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the other to hear all other cases. Last term, more of the Supreme Court’s caseload — 18 of 82 cases (22 percent) — came from the liberal 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, than from any other circuit, and the 9th was reversed in 15 of the 18. The 9th’s winning percentage (.167) was worse than that of the 1962 Mets (.250). On Monday, in the first decision of this term, the Supreme Court reversed the 9th’s fretfulness on behalf of Fernando Belmontes.
In order, as he explained to one of his accomplices, to “take out a witness,” Belmontes used perhaps 20 blows with a metal dumbbell bar to bludgeon to death Steacy McConnell, whose home he had entered for a burglary. He emerged drenched with her blood and carrying her stereo that he sold for $100. She was 19. Belmontes killed her 25 years ago.
How did capital punishment jurisprudence reach its current baroque condition, in which cases live longer than did the murder victims? At the hands of judges such as Stephen Reinhardt, a residue of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, who says Belmontes’ “robbery gone wrong” lacked “especially heinous elements.”
November 17, 2006 - 09:12 AM on November 17th, 2006
The 9th circut court has been the nations most over turned court in the nation so why should this surprise anyone?:roll: