Supreme Court Upholds Stay of Execution for Harris

We don’t need 10 easy lessons to learn that murderers who are convicted of first-degree murder and who are sentenced by a jury to death in the gas chamber have more rights than their victims. Two lessons will teach us the above “truth.” Lesson No. 1: A judge such as John T. Noonan of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has more say so than the jury that convicted Robert Alton Harris of first-degree murder. The jury spent hours, days and weeks listening to the trial evidence. How many hours, days and weeks did Judge Noonan spend on this case?

Lesson No. 2: If the jury was incompetent this matter should have been called to the trial judge’s attention. How many hours, days and weeks did the U.S. Supreme Court spend on this case? In my opinion Judge Noonan and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, William J. Brennan Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Bryon R. White, Harry A. Blackman and John Paul Stevens are champions of first-degree murderers. Where in our judicial system are the champions of the victims?

STEPHEN SWIATEK

Yucca Valley