Frustrating Me At Every Turn
The Terry Schiavo case is on my mind quite a bit lately. But the President's recent statement on the issue made me angry at the way his Administration and Congressional allies pick and choose pet projects by claiming to serve a larger principle, but ignore so many other important cases or programs that would even better serve that principle.
Regarding the recently enacted Schiavo bill, the president said, "In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life," he said.
So what about the death penalty cases where serious questions were raised about the adequacy of legal representation or mental capacity of the convict? Where is the presumption in favor of life in ignoring their cries for justice? And what about the thousands of kids who suffer or die every year because they live in poverty and without health care? Where is the presumption in favor of life in cutting government welfare programs in the name of "reform?"
I just don't understand how they're drawing their lines.
posted by Kat @ 8:34 PM
2 Comments:
Do you not understand, or do you just disagree?
The death penalty appeals process also has a "presumption of life." The prosecution has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (i.e. dispel "serious questions and substantial doubts" to defeat the "presumption in favor of life"). And then, after that, the state has to successfully win multiple appeals and habeas petitions. As in Schiavo's case, where the presumption would be defeasible by leaving a living will, the presumption in death penalty cases is defeasible by a showing of guilt followed by multiple wins on appeal. Sometimes the DP system still makes mistakes, but living wills can be forged or coerced out of people too.
In the case of children who suffer or die because of poverty or lack of health care, the connection is much more attenuated between cutting certain welfare programs and the eventual death of the beneficiaries of those programs. If you want to be academic about it, the fact that those programs are in place now and that it requires a majority of Congress to cut them could be described as a "presumption" in favor of life.
The line that the President seeks to draw is that if people are going to be killed or allowed to die or whatever you want to call it, the burden should be on the proponents of the "death," rather than on the other side. You may disagree substantively with the death penalty or with welfare cuts, but that doesn't mean that the President is being unprincipled about it.
Congress's handling of the Schiavo case is another matter altogether.
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