Broken Justice: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Address Racial Bias & Systemic Injustice That Contributed to Hispanic Inmates Death Sentence!
(2019-11-21 at 13:25:38 )

Broken Justice: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Address Racial Bias & Systemic Injustice That Contributed to Hispanic Inmates Death Sentence

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a Hispanic man who was sentenced to death-and subsequently subjected to eight years of solitary confinement for up to 22 hours a day, which is tantamount to physical torture-based on an expert witness racist testimony suggesting that Hispanics pose a greater danger to society than other individuals.

The Rutherford Institute had asked the Supreme Court to address the many failings of the United States of Americas capital punishment system, epitomized by the case of Victor Hugo Saldano (Saldano v. Davis), whose death sentence and lengthy solitary confinement in Texas were allegedly the result of racial bias, mental incompetence and systemic injustice.

"Chronic injustice has turned the United States of American dream into a nightmare," said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of "Battlefield America: The War on the American People".

"At every step along the way, whether it is encounters with the police, dealings with prosecutors, hearings in court before judges and juries, jail terms in one of the nations many prisons, or death sentences handed out without any attempt at impartiality, the system is riddled with corruption, abuse and an appalling disregard for the rights of the citizenry."

Victor Saldano, a citizen of Argentina, was charged in Texas with shooting a man in the course of a robbery.

After Mr. Saldano was convicted of murder, a separate court proceeding was held to determine whether the death penalty should be imposed.

During the penalty phase of the trial, the state presented the testimony of a psychologist who told the jury that Hispanics and blacks pose a greater danger to the public and so posed the kind of future danger that justified imposing the death penalty.

On the basis of that racist testimony, the jury sentenced Mr. Saldano to death. He subsequently appealed, asserting that the psychologists testimony violated his constitutional right not to be sentenced on the basis of his race.

Although the state defended the sentence for four years on appeal, it eventually admitted to the United States Supreme Court that the psychologists testimony was improper, and the case was remanded for a new sentencing hearing.

However, the Texas courts were unwilling to accept the states admission of error, leaving the case to drag on.

In the meantime, Mr. Saldano was placed in solitary confinement in Texas notoriously severe death-row prison and remained there for nearly eight years until a federal court ordered that he be granted a resentencing hearing.

By that time, Mr. Saldanos mental health had deteriorated so severely due to the conditions of his confinement that he had become mentally incapacitated and was incapable of defending himself.

Despite his familys request that he be moved into a federal psychiatric institution, Mr. Saldano was again sentenced to death, largely due to his erratic behavior in the courtroom.

On appeal, Mr. Saldanos attorneys argued that his extended stay in solitary confinement contributed to the mental deterioration that was the basis for his death sentence, thereby violating the Eighth Amendments prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

In its amicus brief asking the United States Supreme Court to vacate Saldanos death sentence, The Rutherford Institute expanded on the Eighth Amendment argument, detailing the dehumanizing effects of and psychological harm caused by solitary confinement and arguing that Mr. Saldano should not be put to death because of a condition the state itself caused.

Affiliate attorney Christopher Moriarty assisted in advancing the arguments in The Rutherford Institutes amicus brief in Saldano v. Davis.

The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated.

This press release is also available at "The Rutherford Institute" .

Reprinted here with the gracious permission of "The Rutherford Institute" - Dedicated To The Defense Of Civil Liberties And Human Rights!!