Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Obama's Judicial Nominees and Judicial Empathy? Warning: Sickening Content


President Obama has stated that "empathy" is important in a judicial nominee for Supreme Court--Elena Kagan, for example, is touted as a great potential Supreme Court judge because she is "empathetic".
So, is the following court nominee a good example of Mr. Obama's idea of empathy?
Judge Robert Chatigny has been tapped as the President's nominee for the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Currently, Judge Chatigny is a US District Court judge who several years ago presided over the appeal of convicted rapist and murderer Michael Ross. Actually, it wasn't Mr. Ross that appealed--after the death sentence for murdering eight women, Mr. Ross eventually refused further appeal and was resigned to his sentence. So it was actually his family & friends that appealed to Judge Chatigny.
Whereupon Judge Chatigny proceeded to act exceedingl unethically, including to forget to recuse himself for having previously been part of the defense for Mr. Ross.
But even more dastardly and sickening is Judge Chatigny's argument that Mr. Ross's sexual sadism is a mitigating factor in reversing the death sentence.
To get a complete picture of this fiasco, see this (but be warned, Mr. Ross speaks and gives some explicit details) where Senate Republicans question Judge Chatigny.

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