Tuesday, May 24, 2005

No shackling of prisoners

The US High Court has ruled that convicted murderers facing the death penalty cannot be forced to wear shackles unless there is a "heightened security risk or some other special need".

Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented, pointing out that the ruling "all but ignores the serious security issues facing our courts.''

I guess that Scalia and Thomas possess a smidgen more commonsense than the other High Court judges in wanting to prevent a murderer with nothing to lose trying to harm anyone else. Looks like it'll take the deaths of a few more lower court judges, cops, court staff and perhaps innocent bystanders before a different ruling is passed.

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