Saturday, June 6, 2009

Sotomayor Questionnaire Omits Death Penalty Memo, Said Death Penalty Is Racist

The Memo which was not released by Sotomayor in her Questionnaire had some interesting things to say about death penalty and race.

First on the omission itself.

http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDhkYTNlYzljM2EzYzI0Mjc3ZGFlZDBkOGU5YzViNWM=

"The omission noted concerns a memo that Sotomayor signed as a member of a three-person task force of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund, in which she objects to the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York state, on the basis, among other things, of her contention that "Capital punishment is associated with evident racism in our society." The entire memo is worth reading.

One of two possibilities explains this omission: Either this is another Tom Daschle-type vetting failure, or the White House wants to rush this nomination through to avoid such documents coming to light.

The Senate questionnaire has not been completed in "record time," as the White House asserted yesterday with great fanfare.

It has not even been completed.
"

Now on to what Sotomayor said.

"The memo, titled "Task Force on the Bill to Restore the Death Penalty in New York State," and dated March 24, 1981, states:
...
--"Capital punishment is associated with evident racism in our society. The number of minorities and the poor executed or awaiting execution is out of proportion to their numbers in the population."

--"The problem of crime and violence in American society is so complex, it is unreasonable to think that capital punishment will result in preventing it or diminishing it."

--"Our present perspective on the meaning of our values in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and the state of humanistic thinking in the world judge capital punishment as a violation of those values."

--“It is counter-productive; we inflict death on the offender to manifest our opposition to his inflicting death on another."

--“It creates inhuman psychological burdens for the offender and his/her family.”
"

You can read the memo for yourself at http://judicialnetwork.com/contents/files/Death-Penalty-Report.pdf.

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Berman Post: ObamasFrontrunners.com
Berman Post: Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor For Supreme Court Justice
Berman Post: Is Sotomayor a Racist?
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Berman Post: Harry Reid on Sotomayor - "She's Written Hundreds And Hundreds of Opinions. I Haven't Read a Single One of Them"
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