If the death penalty is unconstitutionally wanton and freakish, then what about Lady Gaga? A profound, if unanswered question that Stephen Colbert raised last night as he lamented the decline of capital punishment in the US, blaming “juries and prosecutors” and CSI-Miami. He declared his belief that the death penalty is a deterrent, in that it deters him from hunting his interns for sport “in America.”
Colbert also took on Justice Scalia’s recent infamous dissent in the Troy Davis case, where Scalia stated flatly that there is no problem with execution someone who is “actually” innocent. “Executing the innocent may be cruel, but as long as Scalia is on the bench, it will not be unusual.” A (typically) weird interview with Barry Scheck of The Innocence Project followed.
As for Troy Davis, he is still waiting for the scheduling of the evidentiary hearing the Supreme Court granted him, over the objections of Scalia and his cohort Clarence Thomas.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Fatal Subtraction – Barry Scheck | ||||
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