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Proposed Amendment Is Travesty of Justice

By standdown

That's the title of an editorial in the Sunday edition of the Deseret News of Utah.  LINKThere is no more solemn duty for a state than to carry out a death sentence. It should be conducted only after all appeals have had appropriate review and the mandates of the Constitution have been satisfied. This is ? and should remain ? the sole responsibility of the state judiciary. Recently though, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has said that "there is no death penalty in Utah" because of seemingly endless appeals. As a result, he says, crime victims have no closure. To address this issue, Shurtleff has proposed an amendment to the Utah Constitution that would place limits on the post-conviction appeals process. The amendment, proposed as SJR14, "would provide that, following a direct appeal, a person may challenge the legality of a conviction or sentence only as provided by statute and provide that a person may not be barred from obtaining relief from a conviction or sentence under certain circumstances...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 10, 2009 (boomark / email).