# I'm a liberal, and I am sad that Antonin Scalia died **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059 "2016-02-13T23:01:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059/81 "2016-02-19T20:33:49Z")
Saint Cad, thanks for posting a link that backs me up, Dr. Deth you can refer to the Snopes article which confirms what I said even though it labels it as mixed. Scalia did not think that there was any problem with executing someone who was factually innocent. For some reason Snopes tries to defend him with “In this instance, what’s important is not exactly what he said, but what he meant,” but the article goes on to make clear that what he meant is that he is perfectly fine with carrying out an execution of a factually innocent person regardless of any new evidence is discovered, that executing someone who’s provably innocent is not a violation of due process or cruel and unusual punishment. Edit for Dr.Deth: Scalia’s argument didn’t rely on the evidence in that specific case being insufficient, his argument was that the execution was OK in principle and (as shown in the Snopes article) that no court should waste any time even looking at the evidence in such a case. > [@Scumpup](#): > > …and, clearly, you didn’t like it when _he_ did it. I didn’t like when he voted and spoke in favor of executing factually innocent people, no. But I don’t recall anyone here saying that Scalia should be executed. Like I said before, I have no problem with saying anything about a dead person that is OK to say about a live person, and find the whole concept to be sanctimonious and morally bankrupt upon examination. Do you really not see the difference between killing someone and saying mean things about them on the internet? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059/82 "2016-02-19T20:43:05Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Saint Cad, thanks for posting a link that backs me up, Dr. Deth you can refer to the Snopes article which confirms what I said even though it labels it as mixed. Scalia did not think that there was any problem with executing someone who was factually innocent. For some reason Snopes tries to defend him with “In this instance, what’s important is not exactly what he said, but what he meant,” but the article goes on to make clear that what he meant is that he is perfectly fine with carrying out an execution of a factually innocent person regardless of any new evidence is discovered, that executing someone who’s provably innocent is not a violation of due process or cruel and unusual punishment. > > Edit for Dr.Deth: Scalia’s argument didn’t rely on the evidence in that specific case being insufficient, his argument was that the execution was OK in principle and (as shown in the Snopes article) that no court should waste any time even looking at the evidence in such a case. From the Snopes article"\*Scalia concurred with the court’s 6-3 Herrera v. Collins decision that a claim of innocence should not serve as the sole grounds for habeas corpus relief, stating in his written opinion that sufficient legal relief already existed for people presenting new evidence of innocence (not that factual innocence was irrelevant) and that ruling otherwise would impose an unmanageable burden on lower courts to review newly discovered evidence: \* In other words, it was not that it was OK to execute a innocent man, it was just that bringing in new evidence of potential innocence was not something for a _Federal_ Writ of Habeas Corpus . Guilt or innocence was to be decided at the State level, in these cases. By no means did he say “no court should waste any time even looking at the evidence in such a case” he said\* Federal \*Courts had no jurisdiction to do so. Note it was a 6-3 dec. _The dec had nothing at all to do with potential guilt or innocence_, just whether or not a\* Federal Writ of Habeas Corpus\* was Constitutional at that stage. It wasn’t, and they were correct. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059/83 "2016-02-19T22:31:07Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Do you really not see the difference between killing someone and saying mean things about them on the internet? Who did Scalia kill, for starters? Assuming he killed anybody at all, how does that excuse anybody else acting a low-class fool? What he did wrong doesn’t make anybody else’s bad behavior right. Dahmer being a serial killer doesn’t make it ok for you to litter. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059/84 "2016-02-20T00:47:17Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > . . . And the ‘think of his family’ comments ring hollow when he tried hard to keep gay people from being able to see family members on their deathbed. Precisely. His rulings and opinions were harmful to us all. His views on gays were obviously contrary to the actual constitution: he would have created a “second class” of citizenry, lacking the same rights as the privileged class. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059/85 "2016-02-20T20:29:24Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > The sanctimonious nature of these posts is somewhat undermined when one of the areas that people disagreed with him was the idea that it’s fine and dandy to execute a factually innocent person. And the ‘think of his family’ comments ring hollow when he tried hard to keep gay people from being able to see family members on their deathbed. Wrong on the first part, so got a cite for the second? ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059/86 "2016-02-20T20:34:29Z")
The world is better with him being dead, the world suffered much from his being alive. His death is something to rejoice over. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059/87 "2016-02-20T22:40:47Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Saint Cad, thanks for posting a link that backs me up, You’re welcome except for the fact that my link shows he never made the statement you claim he did. Oh and that there are at least 5 other Justices that people here should be delighted if they die since it was a 6-3 decision. So wrong again. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059/88 "2016-02-21T00:37:52Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > The world is better with him being dead, the world suffered much from his being alive. His death is something to rejoice over. Nah… A really serious case of angina, or rheumatism, or severe gum disease, could have done the job without killing him. Hell, he might have had a religious epiphany, realized how much harm he was doing to his country, and resigned in shame. That would have been great. We shouldn’t be glad he’s dead, just glad he isn’t doing us any harm any longer. If I’m ever at his graveside, I won’t place a flower on it, but I won’t spit on it either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-liberal-and-i-am-sad-that-antonin-scalia-died/746059.md?page=4)