“Capital punishment presents moral questions that philosophers, theologians, and statesmen have grappled with for millennia,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in 2015 — so the Constitution’s Framers “handled it the same way they handled many other controversial issues: they left it to the People to decide.
asserted
they → present → People
The late legal titan adduced the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee that no person shall be “deprived of life . . . without due process of law” to offer a proclamation so intuitive that any middle schooler ought to grasp it: “It is impossible to hold unconstitutional that which the Constitution explicitly contemplates.”
asserted
Constitution → adduce → which
Progressive elites, who have no problem with homicide when victims are unborn children or born children of mothers pleading “postpartum psychosis,” no longer hold the death penalty for society’s worst offenders in high regard.
But those of an older and wiser mentality continue to dispense the ultimate punishment for the most hardened and impenitent criminals.
asserted
those → have → criminals
That’s why Tennessee sentenced Pike to death.
asserted
Tennessee → ’ → death
At the age of 18, Pike and her boyfriend lured a 19-year-old classmate into the Knoxville woods and beat, slashed and mutilated her.
asserted
Pike → lure → her
After a half-hour of torture, Pike killed the classmate by crushing her skull with a slab of asphalt.
asserted
Pike → kill → asphalt
Over three decades later, when Tennessee finally attempted to kill Pike, the state’s method of choice was lethal injection.
asserted
method → attempt → choice
Amazingly, Tennessee failed.
asserted
Tennessee → fail → ?
Today, Pike is “up and walking” in the hospital.
asserted
Pike → walk → hospital
She’s a bit mentally “foggy,” according to her lawyers, but don’t pity her too much.
uncertain
She → ’ → her
Pike’s botched execution is an astounding embarrassment for the state of Tennessee.
asserted
execution → botch → Tennessee
But the only reason there are botched executions today is because of the left’s decades-long legal crusade to intentionally throw sand in the gears of the execution process — over the objection of a majority of Americans, who have long favored capital punishment.
asserted
who → be → punishment
In the 1960s, activist NAACP lawyers launched a campaign to challenge the death penalty on grounds of “systemic racial bias.”
asserted
lawyers → launch → bias
They argued the death penalty constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment.
asserted
penalty → argue → Amendment
The culmination came in 1972, when the Supreme Court ludicrously held that, as a practical matter, the death penalty is unconstitutional.
asserted
penalty → come → matter
Following massive backlash, the court walked that back only four years later.
asserted
court → follow → that
But the legal battle was only beginning.
asserted
battle → begin → ?
In 1977, the court banned the death penalty for rapists of adult women.
asserted
court → ban → women
In 1986, it did the same for the mentally insane.
asserted
it → do → insane
In 2002, the court added those with intellectual disabilities to the list.
asserted
court → add → list
In 2005, the court ended capital punishment for those who were minors at the time of the crime.
asserted
who → end → crime
And in 2008, the court did the same for child rapists.
asserted
court → do → rapists
None of this is based in constitutional interpretation — it’s all legislation from the bench.
asserted
it → base → bench
The left has also waged war on lethal injection drug “cocktails,” similarly claiming that execution method constitutes a “cruel and unusual punishment.”
asserted
method → wag → punishment
Activists lost their first Supreme Court challenge in 2008; they narrowly lost again in the 2015 case that sparked Scalia’s ire, and in a similar case from 2019.
asserted
that → lose → 2019
But where the activists have failed in the courts, they have succeeded elsewhere.
asserted
they → fail → courts
Chemical companies have stopped manufacturing traditional lethal injection drugs.
asserted
companies → stop → drugs
That’s why we have the current “cocktails,” and the corresponding litigation.
asserted
we → ’ → cocktails
It’s all part of a concerted effort to end the death penalty — whether by judicial kill shot or by chemical fiat.
asserted
It → ’ → fiat
America was founded on Hebraic, Old Testament values.
asserted
America → found → values
That’s why most Americans still understand that the only moral response to the most heinous crimes and the most unapologetic criminals is, after due process, to take the criminal’s life.
asserted
response → ’ → life
Criminologists call this “retributive justice.”
asserted
Criminologists → call → this
There’s another term that comes to mind: common sense.
asserted
that → ’ → mind
Pike committed an unspeakable murder.
asserted
Pike → commit → murder
Her lawyers took due process to its (comical) extreme — three decades of appeals and stalls.
asserted
lawyers → take → appeals
She must be put to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.
asserted
She → put → Slemmer
When Tennessee tries again to do so, it should spare us all the indignity of another lethal injection attempt.
asserted
it → try → attempt
Dust off Old Sparky — or Old Smokey, as the electric chair is known in the Volunteer State.
asserted
chair → dust → State
And then there’s what is actually the most reliable, and thereby humane, method of execution: firing squad.
asserted
what → ’ → execution
That’s what President Donald Trump just ordered for Nidal Hasan, the jihadist of Fort Hood massacre infamy.
asserted
Trump → ’ → infamy
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
