US Supreme court issues more anti-democratic rulings

The first of Monday’s rulings reversed a decision of the Kansas Supreme Court requiring juries to find that aggravating factors outweighed mitigating ones before imposing the death penalty. The second struck down a Vermont campaign finance reform law that limited contributions to, and expenditures by, political parties and campaigns.

In both cases, the high court’s extreme right-wing justices ignored contrary state decisions, giving the lie to the claims that they exercise “judicial restraint” and respect “states’ rights.”

The Kansas death penalty law, which had been thrown out by the state’s high court, allowed an accused to be executed if the jury found that aggravating circumstances were not outweighed by mitigating circumstances, thus shifting the legal burden of proof on the defendant to show that he should not be executed. Saying this law meant that “in doubtful cases the jury must return sentence of death,” the Kansas Supreme Court in 2004 reversed the 1996 death sentence given Michael Lee Marsh. The US Supreme Court’s June 26 ruling returns him to death row.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/supr-j29.shtml