Missouri Supreme Court allows Marcellus Williams execution to proceed, governor won't intervene

https://www.kcur.org/news/2024-09-23/marcellus-williams-missouri-execution-supreme-court-governor-clemency

78 points · 9 comments · view on lemmy.world

9 Comments

TheTechnician27@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 1y

So just a state-sponsored lynching in broad daylight. Fuck you, Mike Parson; you look like if a resident of Whoville from Jim Carrey's Grinch were an active member of the KKK.

BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1y

That's a sick way of interpreting clemency power. That it "can't be limited" when a new governor wants to take an inquiry panel away, but apparently can be limited when granted in the first place.

gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 1y (6 replies)

Feels like the DoJ should intervene here. Or, Biden should grant clemency in the case (“fuck you, official act” as necessary, of course)

There’s an opportunity for a real win for justice here. Unfortunately, I don’t expect Biden or Garland to lift a finger.

JoeyJoeJoeJr@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 1y (5 replies)

The president can't intervene at the state level. From americanbar.org:

A U.S. president has broad but not unlimited powers to pardon. For example, a president cannot pardon someone for a state crime.

doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 1y (4 replies)

I think that's why they included the "fuck you, official act" part.

JoeyJoeJoeJr@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y (3 replies)

The president's "official act" would be issuing the pardon. The referenced Supreme Court decision just means it would not be a "crime" for the president to issue said pardon, not that the pardon would stand.

GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y

That's true, so I guess it would need to be having the military intervene to extract him, so that you don't need to worry about what a state court says.

doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y
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5C5C5C@programming.dev · 0 pts · 1y

The official act could be to use the national guard to rescue a US citizen from wrongful imprisonment, but that's the kind of thing that racist Republicans would start a civil war over in the name of "states' rights".

Cowbee@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y

Death to the genocidal US Empire.