The Constitution Of The United States. Article III, Section 3.
Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.
The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.
US CODE: Title 18-2381. Treason
§ 2381. Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
In his old age, Justice Kennedy has become a preening, legal songbird. Through the imprecations and stroking of the committed left on the court--ranging from the idiot, Souter, who is incapable of writing an intelligible legal thought; to the bizarre Ginsburg, who advocates the elimination of consent and equally repellent ideas (but whom has never identified a civil right that did not need her manipulation)--Justice Kennedy has become the pointman for the reconstruction of American law in a form more preferable to the left.
Every decision is focused on the objective of forwarding a political agenda, regardless of the cost to individual and fairness. We see this same ideological drive in KENNEDY v. LOUISIANNA, the recent case wherein the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty was disproportionate to the violent and vicious rape of an 8-year-old girl by a grown man. The enunciated new standard is that the death sentence is only applicable when a death of the victim occurs.
In the decision, the Court made in somewhat clear that they were not deciding the issue as crimes against the State.
" We do not address, for example, crimes defining and punishing treason, espionage, terrorism, and drug king-pin activity.."
But is this true?
It is not.
The Court has clearly laid the groundwork for the next Court to strike down the death penalty for such crimes. Treason is the 'first' crime in America. Laid out in The Constitution, which clearly and unequivocally states that Congress can stipulate any penalty whatsoever. The thought that Congress could be second guessed by the Court clearly never entered the minds of the drafters.
It is noteworthy that Article III is the very Article that establishes the Court and therefore the framers put the Court and the crime of Treason on an equal plane.
BUT buried in the KENNEDY decision is this gem:
" The Court, for example, has acknowledged that the requirement of general rules to ensure consistency of treatment and the insistence that capital sentencing be individualized have resulted in tension and imprecision. This approach might be sound with respect to capital murder, but it should not be introduced into the justice system when murder has not occurred".
This along with the Court's new standard of rarity of application of the death penalty(if it rarely done for a crime, them it must be because it is wrong for that crime) dooms capital punishment for treason , espionage, mailing injurious materials with intent to harm or murder, bank robbery-kidnapping, terrorism per se,and drug king-pin activity where the victims cannot be specifically determined to have been intentionally murdered by the accused. Because there, the Court is basically saying that the appellate protocol for death row inmates must not be extended where there is no death.
And that is what the left wants.
Because treason, espionage, terrorism have no meaning to them: America is the perpetrator of such crimes.
by pat
images:
* my pet jawa: adam gadahn
sources
http://www.law.cornell.edu
http://www.docstoc.com/docs
http://www.law.cornell.edu
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo