L.A. Times Story Slams Ninth Circuit
It’s like I’m living in Bizarro-world. I just read a story by David Savage of the L.A. Times about an egregious Ninth Circuit reversal of a murder conviction — and the article is . . . sensible. Indeed, it is highly critical of the Ninth Circuit in general, and Stephen Reinhardt in particular.
The story distorts no facts. It shows how a story can be laid out in a factual manner — yet through tone, word choice, and choice of quotes and experts to consult, can strongly convey a point of view. We’re all used to that. It’s just that the point of view usually reflects the liberal viewpoint. Today, for some reason, it doesn’t.
As Bizarro-Baquet might say: “This am part of genius L.A. Times self-improvement plan.” Whatever it is, I like it.
Need anymore reason why the whole rotten 9th circut court should be closed down and cleaned out of the trash that sits there now
krazy kagu (c6ad08) — 9/18/2006 @ 7:28 ami saw that article ten minutes ago. two murder cases:
assistant devil's advocate (c6012c) — 9/18/2006 @ 8:15 amthe 9th reversed one because relatives of the victim wore buttons on their shirts with a picture of the victim (no text). stephen reinhardt’s opinion even placed the word “victim” in quotation marks, like this “victim”, notwithstanding the undisputed fact that somebody was shot to death. the 9th ordered the defendant retried within ninety days, or released.
the victim’s brother was quoted in the article. i’ve never lost a family member to murder so am having difficulty imagining what i would do, but if the law failed me in such an instance, i might become my own law and my own court, issuing my own writs.
courtroom observers do not shed their free speech rights at the door. most lawyers are familiar with the u.s. supreme court case of cohen v. california, and the famous t-shirt at its center. cohen was rightly decided, and the right to wear such a t-shirt encompasses the right to wear a button with the victim’s picture on it.
in the other case, a man broke into a woman’s house, stole some money and beat her to death with a barbell. the 9th reversed the death penalty on the ground that the jury failed to take into account the defendant’s potential for rehabilitation in prison.
“how did they know that?” i was curious, but the article was silent on the source of their knowledge. rehabilitation is a great thing, but after bludgeoning an innocent victim to death, it can’t be the primary consideration, unless you’re stephen reinhardt.
in other recent coverage, death penalty opponents are focusing on the psychological makeup of the execution team (!), implying psychological unfitness to execute someone. huh?
The Times has quite a circulation dilemma.
If they change their editorial direction to be less reflexively fringe wacky Left, they will begin an undoubtedly long-term process of expanding their plummeting circulation base. However, they also risk the short-term loss of their core lunatics. Just take a look at a sampling from today’s (9/18) letters to the editor…
“What is certain is that both of these religious leaders (the Pope and Muhammad) would join in mutual defense and brotherhood against any secular attempt to remove them and their political agendas from a free and democratic society based on equality under law.”
“The pope is completely misrepresenting Islam’s heritage of peace, tolerance and justice.”
“Or leader (Bush) did his best to overturn the substance of the Geneva Convention.”
“Were the poor Iraqis really worse off before being liberated?”
How many of these delusional buffoons will remain subscribers if the Times no longer panders to their every fairy tale?
csufbomb (30e635) — 9/18/2006 @ 8:18 amRienhardt, Holcomb, and Berzon should all be impeached for high crimes. Reinhardt and Holcomb for making decisions based on false scholarship or just making stuff up, as in Silveira v. Lockyear and Hickman v. Bock. Berzon should be impeached for this case alone.
The Senate needs to remove those justices and then split the Ninth in half to lessen the disruptive and unconstitutional influence the less than honorable judges have.
Kozinski is the best justice that circuit has. Too bad the others can’t be half as decent.
DKSuddeth (a18213) — 9/18/2006 @ 5:04 pmDean Baquet must have been dozing. Look for a correction in tomorrow’s paper sorting this all out and getting the Times back on the Left(over) track.
Bill M (d9e4b2) — 9/18/2006 @ 5:43 pmi agree with dksuddeth that alex kozinski is the best judge in the 9th circuit. what a smart guy, how did he end up there? why didn’t bush appoint him to the supreme court instead of those awful drones?
assistant devil's advocate (76d45f) — 9/19/2006 @ 10:52 pm[…] I would be more shocked by this if it weren’t for the fact that the paper’s news article on the case was similarly slanted against the Ninth Circuit. My jaw dropped open when I read that article, but it helped lessen the shock of today’s editorial. […]
Patterico’s Pontifications » L.A. Times Editorial Slams Ninth Circuit and Stephen Reinhardt (421107) — 12/12/2006 @ 5:44 pm