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November 19, 2007
Why Do the People at Webster's Hate America?
the subjection of a prisoner to mental torture . . . or physical torture (as . . . deprivation of sleep) in an effort to wring a confession from him.Yes, sleep deprivation -- like waterboarding -- has also long been considered physical torture in America. Or used to be.
Its historical pedigree was recounted in a 1961 opinion of the Supreme Court in Arkansas. Quoting the findings of the Wickersham Commission from 1930 in Binns v. State, 344 S.W.2d 841 (Ark. 1961), the court reversed the defendant's conviction because his confession was secured by torture, i.e., sleep deprivation.
Here's what the Wickersham Commission wrote in 1930:
It has been known since 1500 at least that deprivation of sleep is the most effective torture and certain to produce any confession desired.
Let those words hang in the air: ". . . certain to produce any confession desired." If that's the case, then why bother -- because the proverbial ticking time bomb certainly won't wait.
A couple other points. The Wickersham Commission was populated by some fairly high profile, mainstream men. *Wickersham* was George Wickersham -- U.S. Attorney General for President William Howard Taft and co-founder of the Wall Street firm of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. Roscoe Pound, the great legal scholar, was also on the commission. The founder of the international law firm of Baker & Hostetler, Newton Baker, was a member. Frank Loesch, a famous Chicago organized crime buster, signed the report. An 8th Circuit judge and former U.S. Senator, William Kenyon, also served with Wickersham.
And, finally, before anyone trashes Webster's TNID for its definition of the *third degree*, recent history shows it to be the "go-to" dictionary for every justice on the Supreme Court. For example, Justice Alito relied on it in his concurring opinion last term in Microsoft Corp. v. AT & T Corp., 127 S.Ct. 1746, 1761 (2007). He also relied on WTNID in his dissent in Hamdan v. Rumfeld, 126 S.Ct. 2749, 2850 (2006) (Alito, J., dissenting). Justice Kennedy likewise relied on WTNID in his concurrence in the Hamdan case. Id. at 2801 (Kennedy, J., concurring). In fact, since 1966, WTNID has been relied on in more than 150 Supreme Court opinions by justices of every political stripe.
History will not look favorably upon us -- whether the year 1500 is pre-9/11 or not.
Posted by shertaugh at November 19, 2007 5:51 PM