The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Pennsylvania’s former top judgeviolated the Constitution when he failed to sit out the case of a young man for whom he had recommended the death penalty back when he was district attorney.
The high court’s case was chiefly a dispute over when a judge’s impartiality can be questioned — an area that’s become fodder for Republican presidential politics in recent weeks. But the legal journey of Terrance Williams, who at 18 was sentenced to die for murdering a man who may have sexually abused him, is far worse than anything an unhinged candidate may rattle on about.
Williams’ case illustrates the systemic failures of the criminal justice system — from prosecutorial misconduct and use of false witnesses to tough-on-crime judicial politics and the arbitrariness of the death penalty.
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