Religious leaders oppose DA who says Bible OKs death penalty

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Religious leaders oppose DA who says Bible OKs death penalty

Cain Burdeau, Associated Press

Published 4:07 pm, Monday, October 19, 2015

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Religious leaders of several faiths on Monday said it was illegal for a north Louisiana district attorney — who's gained national attention for his outspoken support of the death penalty — to invoke the Bible when he called on a jury to impose the death penalty.

In a court filing on Monday, more than 100 religious leaders in Louisiana asked the Louisiana Supreme Court to throw out the death penalty imposed on a 27-year-old Shreveport man for smothering his 1-year-old son in 2012.

The religious leaders said Rodricus Crawford was wrongly sentenced to death by a Caddo Parish jury after District Attorney Dale Cox told the jurors the Bible condones the death penalty for child killers.

The legal brief — a friend of the court filing — on behalf of Crawford said Cox's Biblical references were both unconstitutional and wrong.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Religious-leaders-oppose-DA-who-says-Bible-OKs-6578057.php

---

[center]

District Attorney Dale Cox[/center]

[Shrike47]

1. Is that his Grumpy Cat imitation? The cat does it better.

[47of74]

5. More like his big old Republican tough guy look.

All the chest thumpers of the reich have that look down pat.

[cab67]

2. Maybe one of you can explain something -

According to the article, Cox is the "interim district attorney" who will be replaced after a special election soon. But the conviction and sentencing were in 2013. Did this district have an "interim district attorney" for two years?

[Moosepoop]

3. I'll try.

For years, Cox was an ADA (assistant district attorney), working under Parish District Attorney Charles Scott.

As an ADA, he was the prosecutor in many court cases, including that of Rodricus Crawford.

Last April, DA Scott died (was found dead in a hotel room) and by virtue of being "first" assistant DA, Cox was automatically elevated to "interim DA" until a special election could be held. The governor schedules the election.

The election is now scheduled, but due to the notoriety of his own behavior and remarks, Cox decided against entering the race for the permanent DA spot.

I don't know if he'll return to being a "regular" ADA, or if he's fixing to retire soon. I hope it's the latter. Or maybe his new boss will fire him. He has no business being anywhere near a courtroom.

[cab67]

9. Thanks!

[Darb]

4. That's the same guy from 60 Minutes week ago Sunday.

He's a farking dickhead of the year.

[skepticscott]

6. More hypocrisy from the religious left

How often do they preach to their flocks to do things because the Bible tells them so? And now they're shocked, shocked to find out that the world is infested with people with whom that kind of argument is incredibly effective.

[Judi Lynn]

7. You're comment doesn't make sense to me. Would you make another run at it, please?

It would be nice to know what you're attempting to say.

[skepticscott]

8. Left leaning religious leaders are all in a snit

because someone stood up and said "This is what the Bible tells us, so follow the word of Gawd". Which is exactly what they do every Sunday.

Hypocrisy.

Clear now?

[cab67]

10. except that...

…the "left leaning religious leaders" aren't authorized to act on behalf of their county in a court of law.

[skepticscott]

15. What of it? It's not illegal

to refer to the Bible in a court argument. And their claim that his doing so made the trial unfair is more than a little disingenuous since, as noted, they themselves are all about attributing authority to what's in the Bible (but only the parts they like, of course, the usual religious left cherry-picking). Unfortunately for them, the Bible clearly DOES condone the death penalty, and for things a lot less serious than killing a child. That's there in black and white.

[cab67]

17. I'm fully aware of what the Bible says about the death penalty,

having read most of it. My opposition to the death penalty has little to do with the morality of putting a murderer to death and almost everything with the immorality of a system with an intolerably high error rate. I cannot accept even the remotest possibility of an innocent person wrongly being executed.

Referring to the Bible in a court argument is not necessarily illegal, but there's a fine line between referencing it and using it as a legal justification for a conviction or sentence by either a prosecutor or judge, both of whom represent the people in a purely secular capacity. Separation of church and state and all that. Convictions and sentences have been overturned before for this very reason, e.g. those of of James Arnett (Ohio, 1999) and Anthony Farina (Florida, 2014).

[skepticscott]

18. Except that he wasn't using it as a legal justification

He didn't need to, because the death penalty is already legal in his jurisdiction. It was an emotional appeal, not a legal argument, and an appeal that wouldn't even have been tried if not for the widespread mindset of Biblical authority that those protesting this fully support and have done so much to promote. Hence my point about the hypocrisy and disingenuousness of their arguments (NOT about whether the death penalty is a good idea, and I don't think it is, for the record).

[keithbvadu2]

11. The Bible calls for the death penalty

for quite a few offenses.

Looks like we're going to have to bump up the punishment part of the legal code.

[Midnight Writer]

13. The Bible changed course in the New Testament

"Turn the other cheek"

"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord"

"Let you among us who is without sin cast the first stone"

And even in the Old Testament, "Thou Shalt Not Kill"

[skepticscott]

14. And Jesus also said in the New Testament

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

So no, the Old Testament law is not repudiated in the New, but upheld by the highest authority possible.

Anything else?

[NonMetro]

12. See The Silliness The Death Penalty Brings About?

Now we have people arguing about what some book written a couple thousand years ago means!

[whatthehey]

16. The Religious leaders would be better talking to their own fleeces...sorry, "flocks"