Amy Klobuchar's husband is NOT a Federalist. Someone else's tweet is NOT evidence.

[pnwmom]

Last edited Sun Dec 8, 2019, 09:28 PM - Edit history (6)

However, there is actual evidence that Amy's husband has donated only to Democrats.

His name is John D. Bessler and he has donated to Walter Mondale, Hillary Clinton, and his wife Amy.

The first donation by him reported at the link was in 1994. No donations were ever made to Republicans.

https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=john+bessler

ON UPDATE: DUer pazzyanne posted a list of Federalist Society members, and John Bessler is NOT among them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Federalist_Society_members

Let's try not to be gullible, my DU friends!

So who is John Bessler? He's a law professor who has written and edited extensively about the death penalty, including a book titled: THE DEATH PENALTY AS TORTURE: From the dark ages to abolition.


https://www.slu.edu/law/law-journal/pdfs/issues-archive/v62-no4/john_bessler_article.pdf

WHAT I THINK ABOUT WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE DEATH
PENALTY

JOHN D. BESSLER*
I. ALL THE BARBARITY

The death penalty has been used for centuries. The methods of execution
have been gruesome, even monstrous, ranging from crucifixion, drowning,
drawing and quartering, burning at the stake, beheading, and sawing in half.1 In
prior centuries, public executions took place with considerable regularity in
Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, including during the Roman and
Spanish Inquisitions.2 Revolutionaries—opponents of tyrannous monarchs, or
totalitarian or repressive regimes—were often beheaded, hanged, or shot by
firing squad, with the heads of traitors sometimes displayed on spikes or publicly
exhibited in cages as a terrifying example to others. . . .

SNIP

II. ALL THE WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS AND EXECUTIONS
It is impossible to catalog all of the wrongful convictions, death sentences,
and executions associated with criminal justice systems around the world.
Miscarriages of justice—once thought to be rare aberrations—are found
throughout the ages, with the alleged victims of convicted murderers actually
sometimes showing up alive after the condemned individual’s execution.8 The
New York-based Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter
Neufeld, has shined considerable new light over the past twenty-five years on
the causes and frequency of innocent people being unjustly imprisoned and
sentenced to death.9 However, the phenomenon of wrongful convictions is not
new; it spans centuries and societies around the world.10 “To date,” the
Innocence Project’s website reports, “350 people in the United States have been
exonerated by DNA testing, including 20 who served time on death row.”11
“These people,” that website points out, “served an average of 14 years in prison
before exoneration and release.”12 American death row inmates now spend an
average of more than fifteen years between sentencing and execution,13 but it is,
ironically, only because of such prolonged delays that, through newly
discovered evidence, some exonerations are produced.14 Had executions been
carried out more expeditiously after sentencing, scores of innocent people would
have been put to death as a result of faulty eyewitness testimony, perjury by
jailhouse snitches, false confessions, or for other reasons.15

_____________________________________________________________

Associate Professor, University of Baltimore School of Law; Adjunct Professor, Georgetown
University Law Center; Visiting Scholar, Human Rights Center, University of Minnesota Law
School; Of Counsel, Berens & Miller, P.A., Minneapolis, Minnesota. The author’s new book, The
Death Penalty as Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition, was published in February 2017 by
Carolina Academic Press. It won a Bronze Medal in the World History category of the Independent
Publisher Book Awards. The title of this essay is inspired by Raymond Carver’s short story, “What
We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” first published in 1981 as part of a collection with
the same title, and the title of a 1999 book review in The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.
RAYMOND CARVER, WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE (1981); Leigh B.
Bienen, What We Write About When We Write About the Death Penalty—A Review of Recent Books
and Literature on Capital Punishment, 89 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 751 (1999). Over the years,
the author has taught a capital punishment seminar at the University of Minnesota Law School, The
George Washington University Law School, the Georgetown University Law Center, the
University of Baltimore School of Law, and Rutgers School of Law

[Iggo]

1. Well okay then.

(For context: I didn't even know that she was married until I read your post. )

[dewsgirl]

2. So it was made up? I guess? I posted in that thread earlier.

[kcr]

3. This doesn't seem like someone who would be a member

https://www.law.com/2019/07/03/move-over-mann-this-law-prof-also-is-vying-for-first-first-gentleman/?slreturn=20191108193024

He’s got an interesting educational resume with a hodgepodge of degrees. Bessler majored in political science at the University of Minnesota before getting a MFA in writing from Hamline University. Oh, and he’s also got a master’s in international human rights law from Oxford University on top of his juris doctor, which he obtained from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law-Bloomington in 1991.

I think someone saw that he gave a speech, which means nothing, and jumped to conclusions.

[Hav]

4. Wasn't there a recent discussion concerning Twitter and Facebook

in regards to publishing false information? If posters of threads don't do their due diligence and just post claims without any kind of verification, the same criticism leveled at Twitter and Facebook could be leveled at us. I don't know what is true or not in this case but DU might still need a mechanism and ways to counter misinformation.

[pnwmom]

7. It's clear what's true in this case. He has ONLY made political donations to Democrats.

And he has written extensively against the death penalty.

No one has provided a bit of evidence that despite all that, he is a member of the Federalist society.

[betsuni]

5. His wikipedia page was hacked. Back to normal now.

It said, "John Bessler is an American attorney, academic, and willing contributor to the conservative and libertarian Federalist Society" with a link to the Federalist webpage advertising a talk he gave on July 13, 2015 with another speaker: "Execution Methods and Deciding Implementation of the Death Penalty."

It's about one speech.

[pnwmom]

8. And in that one speech he would have been decrying the barbarity of the death penalty. n/t

[betsuni]

16. Of course. Plenty of people thought HRC's speech at Goldman Sachs was somehow diabolical.

I'm sure we will see more of this. It works on the gullible who've been trained to assume bad intentions and corruption of Democrats.

[Hav]

13. I read that too and wondererd about the wording

"willing contributor" but it only said libertatirian and conservative was missing. The wording still seemed so fishy. Misinformation, ratfuckery and malice happening in real time right in front of our eyes.

[pnwmom]

18. Yes, his contribution was providing the anti-death penalty view on a panel of different views. n/t

[Hav]

24. Makes sense

The other person you cited for the talk in post 15, Kent Scheidegger, got the nice title "Mr Death Penalty" and was described as "America's most outspoken advocate for capital punishment" by The Atlantic.

I hope this thread stays active long enough for those to see who described her husband as a right winger and who were so concerned about how bad it looks. No trace of them here so far.

[Gothmog]

6. Thank you for posting this

I seriously doubt that this man is a member of the federalist society

[Lexee]

9. A Sander supporter falsely attacking our Democratic leaders. Not pretty.

[still_one]

10. Not surprising either

[Lexee]

12. Nope, not surprising at all.

[George II]

11. Not sure about "membership" (do they have formal memberships?) but he is associated....

....with the Federalist Society.

https://fedsoc.org/search?term=Bessler

But who cares? It's obvious that she's not a conservative or a republican or even a right-leaning Democrat. It looks like he's anti-death penalty, which is great in my book.

I pointed out elsewhere, "mixed" couples are not uncommon in politics - Mary Matalin/James Carville, Margaret Hoover/John Avlon for example.

[pnwmom]

15. He is not a member. If you click on the link naming him as a "contributor," the reference

is to him contributing his views in a forum on the death penalty. He is strongly on the anti-death penalty side, but, yes, he did debate with people with the opposite point of view.

That doesn't make him a member of the Federalists. And all his political donations over the years have been to Democrats.

Execution Methods and Deciding Implementation of the Death Penalty
Teleforum

Speakers:
John Bessler • Kent Scheidegger

[George II]

19. Thanks. I would't think so. I didn't think that "contributor" meant he gave them money, but...

...participated in at least that one forum.

There's also a Scott Gessler listed, but he's not related.

[pazzyanne]

21. Check out this link for an answer to your question.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Federalist_Society_members

[George II]

23. Thanks. So he isn't a member.

[greyl]

14. The related OP is now gone, thankfully. nt

[pnwmom]

17. Good. Thanks for letting me know!

[greyl]

32. My pleasure. nt

[pazzyanne]

20. The link below DOES NOT list John Bessler as a member:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Federalist_Society_members

This should help with fact checking his membership in the Federalist Society.

[pnwmom]

25. Thank you, pazzyanne!

As others have pointed out, contributing an anti-death penalty point of view on a panel sponsored by the Society doesn't make you a member.

[SidDithers]

22. DU rec...

"Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it"

Sid

[Hoyt]

26. +1. One thing to post one's opinion that is different. It's another to post link to obvious BS.

We didn't learn a lot from 2016.

[Baked Potato]

27. Just a cursory check of contributors shows people from all walks

Including ACLU staff. I guess it’s moot, but just in case.

https://fedsoc.org/contributors

[pnwmom]

28. "Contributers" is how they describe people who speak at their events. So if you go to an event

and argue against the death penalty vs. someone who is pro-death penalty, then the Federalists call you both contributors.

[Baked Potato]

29. Yes, thanks for your OP

[evilhime]

30. I did check and found this

https://fedsoc.org/contributors/john-bessler which can be confusing since it is on their page... But according to the Daily Kos https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/8/1904338/-Preemptive-Amy-s-Husband-is-NOT-a-Member-of He spoke there but is not a member and from what I can see above and in the article thinks the opposite way of members of that group. Thanks for this post!!!!

[pnwmom]

31. Right. The Society causes this confusion by calling anyone who speaks at one of their events

a "contributor." He spoke against the death penalty on one of their panels, which made him a contributor.

But we have a final word now, from the campaign itself.

Link to tweet

?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1203779137468616708&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F100212763123