![]() So just hours after Caroline was born, I said a prayer of thanksgiving, kissed my beautiful wife and baby daughter, rushed to the airport, and flew to Washington to argue the case. It was a horrible case, where aģ00-pound man had brutalized has seven-year-old stepdaughter. I was appearing in support of a Louisiana law that allowed capital punishment for the very worst child rapists. Supreme Court scheduled for two days later. There, I was studying cases for an oral argument before the U.S. To be fair, when it came to leaving work at the hospital steps, I wasn't completely innocent. I gently pulled the Blackberry out of her hands. I admired her tenacious work ethic-it's one of the many qualities that made me fall in love with her-but this was too 92-3Ĭapital punishment for the very worst child rapistsĪs she lay in the hospital bed, in labor, Heidi was typing furiously on her Blackberry, still tending to the needs of her clients. Source: A Time for Truth, by Ted Cruz, p. The rule could exclude claims of actual innocence-which could be filed at any time whatsoever-but the vast majority of capital defendants make no claims of innocence. Reasoned consideration of the legal claims, not haphazard skimming at midnight. Or, even a single justice could simply announce publicly that he or she would not vote to stay any execution if the stay application were filed less than a week earlier. It would be a simple matter for the Court to issue rules saying that all applications for stays must be filedĪt least one week before the execution date. This gamesmanship diminishes respect for the rule of law. Just before that deadline, under the current system, defense lawyers tend to file aįlurry of last-minute appeals to the Supreme Court for emergency stays of execution. A great many states set executions late at night, often at midnight. One sobering component of being a Supreme Court clerk literally involves life-and-death decisions. 92Įnd last-minute death penalty appeals: one week deadline I still don't understand why the justices tolerate this gamesmanship, which diminishes respect for the rule of law. Wake them up, and then the justices would each vote on the appeal that night. Each of the other eight clerks would call their justices at home, The appeal would go to the full Court for a vote. Simply describing the brutal nature of the crime for which the defendant had been convicted. ![]() I would make a point of doing something the liberal clerks who opposed capital punishment rarely did. Then the clerk would call his boss, who was at home and probably asleep (although they knew the call was coming). ![]() If the appeal was in a circuit assigned to your justice, it was your responsibility to read through the entire , defense lawyers tend to file a flurry of last-minute appeals to the Supreme Court for emergency stays of execution. In death penalty cases, describe brutal nature of crime
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