State says ACLU has no standing in Dawson case

Earlier I posted on how the ACLU were trying to strike down a capitol punishment case by the idiotic claim that it violated the Fifth Amendment and constituted of “cruel and unusual” punishment. They were trying to represent a man that didn’t even want their representation.

Well, here is an update on that via Billings Gazette.

Civil liberties groups have no legal standing to try to stop the execution of death row inmate David Dawson, and have provided no evidence to support their claims that lethal injection could constitute cruel and unusual punishment, the state contends in documents filed Monday with the Montana Supreme Court.

The arguments, written by Assistant Attorney General Pamela Collins, are included in the state’s response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and others trying to stop Dawson’s scheduled Aug. 11 execution.

Helena attorney Ron Waterman, representing the groups who asked the Supreme Court to intervene, said early Monday afternoon he hadn’t had a chance to review the state’s filing and couldn’t immediately comment.

Dawson, convicted of murdering three members of a family in a Billings motel in 1986, successfully won the right to dismiss his attorneys, end his appeals and move forward with the execution. The civil liberties groups, however, filed a lawsuit earlier this month asking the state Supreme Court to suspend the execution, and any others in Montana, until a court can decide whether lethal injection is humane.

In the state’s 25-page response, Collins said the Supreme Court should reject the groups’ request outright, given that Dawson wants nothing to do with the lawsuit.

“In fact, Dawson has specifically informed this court that he does not desire to participate in this lawsuit, and that he desires that his execution proceed as scheduled,” Collins wrote.

In his own response to the lawsuit last week, Dawson said those trying to suspend the execution “totally disregard” his “personal feelings and wishes.”

I thought the ACLU were pro-choice! The criminal in this case wants to die, and the ACLU should mind their own business. Don’t they have a terrorist or child molester to defend somewhere? Someone that actually wants their help?

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