California Killer's Case Back Before Supreme Court

by David G. Savage - November 1st, 2009 - Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court is considering, for the third time, the case of a California murderer who was sentenced to die in 1982 for the brutal killing of a young woman.

Twenty years ago, the California Supreme Court affirmed a death sentence for Fernando Belmontes, but since then his case has bounced back and forth in the federal courts. Three times in this decade, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned his death sentence as flawed.

The case is the latest skirmish in the long-running war between California prosecutors and the 9th Circuit over the death penalty -- and it helps explains the oddity of capital punishment in California. Although death sentences are common, executions are rare.

The reason is because the 9th Circuit is a leader in the rule of judges sweepstakes. 9th Circuit judges are arrogantly indifferent to law and the premise that judges enforce the rule of law. They are instead dedicated to the idea that our Constitution is an outdated document. Judges get to make it up as they go.

Don't like the idea of the death penalty. Fine. You simply block all executions and make the courts a permanent farce. The people are too stupid to do anything about it. Judges consider themselves above the law, not a part of it.