Loran Kenstley Cole Execution

Cole, 57, was convicted in the 1994 murder of a Florida State University student who went to the Ocala National Forest to camp with his sister. 

Cole would be the first inmate executed in Florida since October. 

We have the usual problems with executing someone after thirty years:

These lengthy delays create two special constitutional difficulties. First, a lengthy delay in and of itself is especially cruel because it subjects death row inmates to decades of especially severe, dehumanizing conditions of confinement. Second, lengthy delay undermines the death penalty’s penological rationale.   

Nonetheless, Justice Breyer (joined by Ginsburg and also flagged in the past by Stevens) was in dissent. Cole's lawyers also cite his abuse in a teenage reform school. Six other alumni later were sentenced to death. His own story is not pretty: 

Cole said he was raped by a guard, beaten at least twice a week and had both of his legs broken by staff after trying to escape during his six-month stint at Dozier, court documents dating back more than a decade said.

Others will focus on his crimes here:

Cole and another man, William Paul, joined the brother and sister at their campsite. After they decided to walk to a pond, Cole knocked Edwards’ sister to the ground and ultimately handcuffed her, the records said. Paul took the sister up a trail, and John Edwards died from a slashed throat and blows to the head that fractured his skull, according to the court records. Edwards’ sister was sexually assaulted and was tied to two trees the next morning before freeing herself.

I provided three articles that discuss the case. The description is from the first. Paul pled no contest and was sentenced to life in prison. LWOP has its own issues but the plea bargain probably explains why.

He had a longshot/hopeless final appeal arguing his  Parkinson’s disease would make the lethal injection cruel and unusual punishment. The conservatives have refused in multiple opinions to find any problems with lethal injection. 

Not surprisingly, they didn't start now, and the liberals silently went along. No comment. 

Again, I think it is appropriate for the justices to supply a brief statement of why the Supreme Court -- including judges wary about the death penalty and lethal injection specifically -- opened the path to the taking of human life by the government. 

He committed a horrible crime and served a long time in prison. I do not think choosing to execute him instead of many other people who committed heinous murders [often more than one] after thirty years is a useful exercise of public policy. 

Florida thought otherwise. 

Democratic Platform 

Meanwhile, for some reason, the Democrats removed an anti-capital punishment plank from its platform. Since Kamala Harris voiced her opposition in the past and 65% of Democrats oppose capital punishment, it would seem to be a curious move. 

President Biden has voiced his own opposition to the death penalty. He said that he supported Congress repealing the death penalty. Merrick Garland had the Justice Department investigate it (seems to be still pending). The Justice Department did seek the death penalty in at least one multiple murder case.

Time is running out for the Biden Administration to do something. It is the sort of thing you do at the last minute. For instance, he can commute the sentences of those on federal death row. We might not know what he plans to do until January. We shall see.

The reporting notes that the death penalty is not the only place where the platform has a more restrained criminal justice reform tenor. Some of this might be part of Kamala Harris's "prosecutor" past but the platform was crafted before she was the nominee. 

Crime policy, as compared to border policy, is not really a major concern in this election. The shift -- largely taking place out of public view since who really cares above and beyond other stuff -- just appears to me dubious. 

Anyway, what Biden does regarding the death penalty is something to keep an eye on. I know we all will have a lot of other stuff on our minds but still.