Friday, February 19, 2010

On contracts, torts and the death penalty

On the way down to the island this morning I heard a radio ad for Judge Rose Vela, a republican candidate for a seat on the Texas Supreme Court. She was proud of the fact that she had presided over death penalty cases on the trial bench and that this somehow qualifies her to sit on the state's highest civil appellate court. I'm not certain how imposing the death penalty qualifies one to decide what the language in a contract means whether someone owed someone else a duty or if a person is a responsible third party.


If she enjoys green-lighting state-sponsored murder, perhaps Judge Vela should go to the Court of Criminal Appeals where she can ponder issues of due process and constitutional rights before uttering those two famous words -- "harmless error."

2 comments:

Mark Bennett said...

In an earlier election, some yahoo with criminal court experience ran for the court of appeals claiming to have "the courage to sentence someone to death."

That was B.B. (before blogs), so I can't find a reference.

Paul B. Kennedy said...

Thanks for the comment, Mark.

It's about as ridiculous as candidates for attorney general talking about how tough they will be on crime.