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Article: Oratory disguised as justice.(COMMENTARY)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- April 30, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Bruce Fein, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
It was magnificent anti-death penalty oratory, but it assuredly was not judging. That characterizes the decision last Thursday of Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York holding unconstitutional the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act in all its moods and tenses. With the silvery rhetoric of anti-evolutionist Williams Jennings Bryan and the blazing fervor of Scotch preacher John Knox, Judge Rakoff sermonized that the risk of executing the innocent sinned against constitutional due process. But his reasoning in United States vs. Alan Quinones et al. smacked more of the ...