title:  Why We Should All Be Aware Of Ted Cruz’s Creepy Obsession With Murder And The Death Penalty
text: Some people have a passion for writing or for music and the arts. Others make sure they stand up for human rights for all and/or the impacts of climate change on our global economy. Then there are the folks who you already thought were creepy and just became a lot more creepy when you find out that they re  obsessed  with murder and the death penalty.Enter: Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz.While it was thought that Cruz took a particular interest in the death penalty because his mentor s father was killed by a carjacker, he also obsessed over the details. As a Supreme Court clerk he was preoccupied with the details of murders, many say so that he could push for the death penalty. And while some were impressed that his passion was deep for this form of justice, others felt very differently.According to the New York Times: Other clerks, however, had a less admiring view of his interest. In interviews with nearly two dozen of Mr. Cruz s former colleagues on the court, many of the clerks working in the chambers of liberal justices, but also several from conservative chambers, depicted Mr. Cruz as  obsessed  with capital punishment. Some thought his recounting of the crimes    dime store novel  was how one described his style   seemed more appropriate for a prosecutor persuading a jury than for a law clerk addressing the country s nine foremost judges. In Cruz s own words within his book  A Time for Truth,  he wrote, I believe in the death penalty,  and he thought it was his job to  describe the brutal nature of the crime,  because  liberal clerks would typically omit the facts; it was harder to jump on the moral high horse in defense of a depraved killer. His obsession with the death penalty derived from his passion for conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig, and came through the death of Luttig s father. The New York Times describes their relationship as such: Judge Luttig engendered enormous loyalty from his clerks, who sat behind him as he wrote multiple drafts of an opinion over 20-hour days. But the ideological and intellectual connection between Mr. Cruz and Mr. Luttig also had an emotional element. The emotional element was intensified by Cruz s reaction to the murder of Luttig s father via carjacking. A carjacker who was, in fact, executed in 2002 for his crimes.Cruz brought his passion to the Supreme Court when he began his clerkship for Chief Supreme Court Justice at the time, William Rehnquist. It was there that he schmoozed his way through and got his feet wet in the world of national politics. His ardor for the death penalty continued and according to the NY Times: Mr. Cruz usually reserved his enthusiasm for his unsparing death penalty memos or the late nights when a prisoner from the appeals circuit under Chief Justice Rehnquist s oversight was slated for execution. On those nights, when he was responsible for addressing the flurry of 11th-hour motions from defense lawyers, he would rouse the chief justice at home, give his recommendation, get the chief justice s vote and then write up a memo that explained why the chief justice had voted to deny an emergency postponement of the execution. One would think, as the supposed Christian that Cruz says he is, he would err on the side of compassion and responsibility to ethics and reasonable doubt instead of pushing so hard for people to die. After all, according to the Bible, Jesus was killed via the death penalty.His passion for the death penalty is one that may show more than just his supposed love for justice, but rather about his character. It s odd, to say the least. Concerning, to be brutally honest. Is this the sort of person the United States needs as a Commander-in-Chief? One that is so eager to rush to judgment and push for people to be killed in some form of vengeful act? It truly explains his fervor for war and  carpet bombing  the Middle East to make the Islamic State  glow in the dark. To answer those questions, no, we don t need that sort of unstable person in office making critical decisions about foreign policy and national security. It wouldn t only be devastating for the nation, but for the entire world.Featured image: Gage Skidmore (flickr)