Merchants Of Death

I caught a few minutes of the Abrams spectacle Jeremy referred to. Despite watching very briefly, I was fortunate enough to hear some well-manicured and neatly goateed lawpundit explain that (slight paraphrase) "the big question now is whether or not Laci Peterson's family will live long enough to see Scott Peterson die" (repeat, only slight paraphrase). It has a brilliance and a cunning to it, no?

The universal salient truth that emerged on cable news yesterday seemed to be that Scott Peterson deserved the death penalty because he displayed no emotion during the sentencing proceedings, and maybe also because he comes from a privileged socio-economic background. (I actually heard someone advertised to be a legal expert on one of these channels claim that the poor and minorities get leeway in death penalty cases because judges and jurors have sympathy for them.)

What Abrams and his colleagues in legal showbiz have done is remarkable: Though they haven't the slightest legitimacy as magistrates, they have nevertheless been able to introduce a new axiom into criminal jurisprudence, i.e., that the emotional reaction of a defendant to his trial and sentencing hearing strongly determines the justice of a particular sentence. That statement is not a joke and I mean it literally; Abrams et al., because of the reach of their medium, are in a position to impose ad hoc criminal law. The pool of potential jurors for any trial is constituted by persons who will increasingly adhere to the Abrams Doctrine of Matching Punishments to Defendants' Emotive Displays Rather Than Their Crimes.

With that in mind, I want to offer a small amendment to Jeremy's proposed sentencing reform. If a jury arrives at a death sentence, the jurors are to draw lots and divide into two groups. One group will be responsible for the physical and emotional torture of the others. (And if you like, keep the Saudi and Syrian torturers around just in case a torturans refuses to torture a torturandum. But something tells me these people will have no difficulty following orders.)