Here Comes the Judge, There Goes the Law
February 3, 2005
I have a way to keep Roe v. Wade the law of the land and still bring an end to abortion. Just impose the same nonsensical logic to the execution of fetuses that the liberals impose on convicted murderers. In the end, it “would cost more to kill the baby than sentencing him to a life on Earth”. Or, as Chief U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny would say, “I don’t want to be responsible anymore”. And thus spoke the liberal.
Chatigny is the Federal Judge who just gave a “time out” to convicted Connecticut serial rapist-murderer, Michael Ross. In what has been labeled as a “bizarre” teleconference, Chatigny “browbeat” Ross’s attorney into an eleventh hour stay of the execution by lethal injection that both Ross and his attorney supposedly wished to occur.
Just when the citizenry has a dream team of a defense counsel and serial rapist-murderer saying “Kill me, I’m the worst of the worst”, an official on the sidelines calls a delay of game because, “I as the chief judge of the court have to be sure that you are doing everything that one should do ethically in this situation”. Judge Chatigny is afraid that an extended stay on death row might cause a person to “...lose his ability to make a knowing, intelligent and voluntary choice” (speculatively known as Death Row Syndrome). Chatigny gives this crackpot theory credibility because “...most European countries have recognized that”. Why don’t we just let The Hague manage our criminal justice system?
Chatigny wants to be 100% certain that, in wishing to be executed, “Ross’s decision is a knowing, intelligent and voluntary decision.” When it comes to executing serial rapist-murderers, this Federal Judge wants a “clear record” that the murderer fully understood ALL of his options. In fact, Judge Chatigny demanded that, “You (defense counsel) better have a court reporter there taking down the advice you’re giving him (Ross)....” I wonder if Chatigny, or any other anti-death penalty liberal, would demand the same burden of disclosure from a Planned Parenthood counselor advising a pregnant 15 year old.
There is a striking hypocrisy in the zealousness with which liberals labor to save murderers while simultaneously murdering innocent fetuses. It is laughable how liberals fret that a hypothetical burning sensation from the lethal injection might be cruel and unusual punishment for a condemned murderer, but ignore that “Medical research now confirms...the baby in the womb can feel the pain of an abortion.”
The reaction to The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (now sitting before Congress) is an example of the liberal two-step. The bill would require abortion practitioners “to tell any woman considering an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy that the abortion procedure will cause significant pain for the unborn child” and “that the mother be given the opportunity to have anesthesia administered to the baby prior to the abortion”. Bobbie Kierstead, from Planned Parenthood of Nebraska, thinks that "There is a great deal of debate in the medical community about this issue and what is contained in this bill is based on speculation and inference."
Yet when it comes to the life of a convicted serial rapist-murderer who willingly wishes to be executed, Judge Chatigny relied upon the speculation of an unproven theory to threaten the defense counsel’s livelihood. Psychiatrist Dr. Stuart Grassian introduced the concept of Death Row Syndrome in an effort by uninvited busybodies to block Mr. Ross's execution. In turn, Chatigny embraced the syndrome as gospel when he verbally pistol-whipped the defense counsel to back off the claim that Ross was competent. Despite the fact that the Connecticut Supreme Court and a federal judge already had ruled that Ross was mentally competent, Chatigny told Ross’s attorney to declare Ross incompetent or “I’ll have your law license”.
I wonder what Chatigny would have told the management of the Portland Oregon-based All Women's Health Services abortion facility when they handed out a death sentence to a 15 year old girl and her fetus. The woman, now 19, was not informed by the abortion facility of the psychological trauma of an abortion or that the abortion procedure has significantly high breast cancer risks for teenagers...especially teenagers with a family history of breast cancer. The woman disclosed a family medical history of breast cancer on the abortion facility intake form, but was not told of the link.
Not wanting to defend its stance against the research data confirming a link between teenage abortion and breast cancer in a trial, the abortion facility made an offer of judgment which allowed the girl to win the lawsuit without a trial. Perhaps Judge Chatigny should ask this Portland-based abortion facility if they did “everything that one should do ethically in this situation”. Of course this only affected the life of a fetus and a teenage girl...not as vital as protecting the life of a murderer of teenage girls.
Liberal judges should make-up their minds. Either we start executing murderers with the callousness we exact on fetuses or...we decide that the cost of capital punishment on a fetus far outweighs the cost of a lifetime sentence on Earth. Because, to quote Judge Chatigny, as things stand now “I see this happening and I can’t live with myself...It’s wrong.”
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