South Dakota Attorney General Quotes MLK in Support of Inmate’s Execution

In Wednesday’s edition of Who’s Appropriating Martin Luther King, Jr. Today?, we have South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who quoted from King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” yesterday in support of the death penalty.

After the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Charles Russell Rhines, who has been on death row since 1996 for a first degree murder conviction, Jackley wrote:

“The United States Supreme Court’s order today affirms that South Dakota has taken proper precautions in drafting and implementing its death penalty statutes to assure that they meet constitutional requirements. Donnivan Schaeffer’s family has waited 22 years in their search for justice. In the wake of yesterday’s day of remembrance, it is well to recall what Martin Luther King Jr. recognized in his Letter from the Birmingham Jail: ‘Justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”

RELATED: Conservative Fox Guest Quotes MLK Against ‘Redistribution,’ Leaves Co-Panelist Speechless

Talking Points Memo quoted Argus Leader’s David Montgomery, who pointed out King was explicitly opposed to capital punishment. And that’s leaving aside the fact that “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written from inside, you know, a jail.

[h/t Talking Points Memo]

[Image via screengrab]

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