Nutmeg Madness
January 30, 2005
Things are crazy in the land of steady habits where serial killer Michael Ross wants to die, but every officious intermeddler in the state seeks to stop the death penalty from being imposed. The Ross execution has been scheduled, and postponed, four times already this week. After all hopes for legal means of stopping the execution were exhausted, a federal judge took matters into his own hands.
United States District Judge Robert Chatigny corralled the lawyer for Mr. Ross, T.R. Paulding, and threatened to have his license unless the man stopped the execution. This unprecedented act of judicial arrogance is meeting with praise from liberals. Chatigny is a man of courage; an intellectual with a conscience. No one is questioning whether this judge is abusing his discretion by playing philosopher-king.
Blinded by opposition to the death penalty, there is praise for this judge on many lips. Those same lips will cry foul when this judge oversteps his bounds in some more mundane case.
Ross has been on death row for 18 years. The state has not executed someone since 1960. After Ross is executed, some courageous Senator ought to bring an article of impeachment as to Chatigny. I doubt he’d actually be impeached, but someone needs to call the bluff of this moralistic thug.