Judiciary Committee Votes to Promote Judge Who Made Excuses for Roadside Strangler, Claiming His “Sexual Sadism” Was a “Mitigating Factor”
On a party-line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved President Obama’s promotion of a federal judge who tried to block the execution of a serial killer and rapist known as the Roadside Strangler based on the unbelievable ground that this serial killer’s “sexual sadism” was a mitigating factor. The judge did so even though this serial killer admitted his sentence was appropriate and did not seek to challenge it. Obama nominated this judge to serve on a federal appeals court known as the 2nd Circuit. The newspaper Roll Call reports:
“The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Judge Robert Chatigny to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday on a largely party-line vote despite stiff GOP opposition over his handling of child pornography and rape cases as a district court judge. With Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) abstaining on the vote, the committee’s other 11 Democrats approved the nomination Thursday morning, while the committee’s entire seven-member contingent of Republicans voted ‘no.’ In a series of cases involving defendants found guilty of child pornography, rape and sexual assault cases, Chatigny used the process of downward departure to reduce their sentences. Chatigny also played a central role in the ‘roadside strangler’ case. In that case, Chatigny allegedly threatened to pull the law license of the attorney for a convicted killer — who has been on death row for 15 years — unless he continued his efforts to have the sentence overturned. Chatigny’s nomination has been hotly contested by victims’ rights advocates and the families of several high-profile victims, including the family of Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped in 2002.”
The Judiciary Committee ignored objections from victims-rights advocates like Edward Smart of the Surviving Parents Coalition, who noted that Judge Chatigny had not just opposed the execution of “Roadside Strangler” Michael Ross, but also gone further, to question his very conviction, based on silly reasons: “Judge Chatigny claimed Ross was incompetent to stand trial based on the prison environment and Ross’s sexual sadism.” This sort of making excuses for dangerous criminals to overturn their convictions (and potentially set them free) is extremely disturbing.
Footage of the Judiciary Committee hearing makes clear that even some liberal Senators found Chatigny’s record disturbing, but they voted for him anyway out of blind party loyalty to Obama, who nominated him. Conservative Senator Sessions discusses and criticizes the nomination here.
An even more radical Obama nominee, Goodwin Liu, was previously approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Liu is a Berkeley law professor who believes that the Constitution requires racial quotas and welfare, and is hostile to “free enterprise, private ownership of property, and limited government.” If confirmed by the full Senate, Liu would sit on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation’s largest federal appeals court.
Obama’s recent Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, shirked her duty to defend federal laws protecting crime victims, while in her current position as Solicitor General, to which she was appointed by Obama.