f r e s h s t a r t
Friday, September 15, 2006
Redemption
While every cause needs its leaders, people who are steadfast in their beliefs, isn't there something more interesting about a convert? I'm sure that some environmental activists, evangelical church leaders, and others with causes enjoy preaching to the choir, but there is a special satisfaction that come when you convince someone to switch to your point of view. I love a movie character who switches from evil to good, and I also like a Supreme Court Justice who does so. No new news here, the case is 12 years old, but something I read for class last night gave me chills.
"From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. For more than 20 years I have endeavored...to develop...rules that would lend more than the mere appearance of fairness to the death penalty endeavor. Rather than continue to coddle the Court's delusion that the desired level of fairness has been achieved..I feel morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed."Justice Blackmun, after going along with the death penalty for years, wrote that in 1994, in a dissenting opinion in the denial of cert for Callins v. Collins. I had heard them quoted before, but reading them in the context of other death penalty cases somehow made it more powerful.
This is the Justice who was a Republican his entire life, but who became increasingly liberal during his time on the Supreme Court. Talk about a redemption story.
08:58 2 comments
Comments:
Actually, his clerk wrote it ... and he now works at Mayer Brown (in the DC office). Now THAT is something to put on your resume.
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