Flashback: Scalia says there’s nothing unconstitutional about executing the innocent.

Almost two decades ago, Troy Anthony Davis was convicted of murder and sentenced to die. Since then, seven of the witnesses against him have recanted their testimony, and some have even implicated Sylvester “Redd” Coles, a witness who testified that Davis was the shooter. In light of the very real evidence that Davis could be innocent of the crime that placed him on death row, the Supreme Court today invoked a rarely used procedure giving Davis an opportunity to challenge his conviction. Joined by Justice Clarence Thomas in dissent, however, Justice Antonin Scalia criticized his colleagues for thinking that mere innocence is grounds to overturn a conviction:

This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent. Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged “actual innocence” is constitutionally cognizable.

So in Justice Scalia’s world, the law has no problem with sending an innocent man to die. One wonders why we even bother to have a Constitution.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/08/17/56525/scalia-actual-in...

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Comment by Anti Everything on February 14, 2016 at 6:17am: It is so cool I didn't know one of the 'criminal enablers' id dead and has been for several years. Oh the joy a short memory or, not watching Tv so as to 'stay up on things'. All the same I bet his replacement is as bad.

Comment by truth on February 13, 2016 at 8:13pm: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Dies at 79 --Scalia was key in installing George W. Bush as president in 2000 coup in U.S. and blocked release of Dick Cheney's records on seeds of [illegal] Iraq and Afghanistan invasions/occupations | 13 Feb 2016 | The supreme court justice [sic] Antonin Scalia has died. He was 79. Texas governor Greg Abbott issued a statement confirming the news and paying tribute to Scalia, a noted and staunch conservative. The San Antonio Express News reported that Scalia was found dead on Saturday at a ranch in the Big Bend region of Texas, south of Marfa, and said he had been staying at a ranch, for a private party, and was discovered to have died after not attending a breakfast. Local ABC affiliate KVIA reported that Scalia died in his sleep after a day of quail hunting.

Comment by Tara on August 19, 2009 at 12:15pm: God help this Scalia if he was ever charged with a crime/murder that he did not commit and was sentenced to death!!!!!! Wouldn't he be pleading for justice and be looking to the Constitution to protect him?????