Tag: Penal and Justice Reform

In the Hands of Alberto.

Would you want this man making a life-and-death decision for you? For some reason, embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales — who hasn’t been coming across as a model of competence lately — is apparently about to receive expanded powers to fast-track state death penalty cases. “Kathryn Kase, a Houston lawyer who serves on the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ death penalty committee, said the Justice Department’s proposed regulations are ‘severely lacking’ because they do not provide enough oversight to ensure that defendants are receiving adequate legal counsel. ‘In our judgment they allow states to…claim they have a capital representation case that is functional, when in fact it might not be functional at all,’ Kase said. ‘It may not prevent people from being wrongfully sentenced to death.‘” The older I get, the worse the death penalty seems as public policy. Even the cruel and unusual aspect notwithstanding, it’s arbitrary, it doesn’t work as a deterrent, it’s often racist. Add Gonzales’ presumed oversight to the list of negatives.

Brownback to the Future?

“Search the record of history. To walk away from the Almighty is to embrace decline for a nation. To embrace Him leads to renewal, for individuals and for nations.” Not to be outdone over on the Republican side, right-wing GOP Senator Sam Brownback throws his hat in the ring as well. From what I’ve seen of Brownback, which isn’t much other than a few Sunday show appearances, he seems like the scariest kind of cultural and religious conservative — a smart and articulate one. (And, to his credit, Brownback has tried to add such important issues as prison reform and AIDS awareness to the usual catalog of medieval social positions held by the religious right.) The McCain team would do well not to underestimate him.

The Executioner’s Song.

“Fighting over the ‘evolving standards of decency’ underlying the Eighth Amendment’s ban on ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ the 5-to-4 opinions reflect an all-out war between the proponents of a living (or at least medium-rare) Constitution and those who want to see it dead (or perhaps well-done, with a nice pinot).” Slate‘s inimitable Dahlia Lithwick explains the Kennedy-Scalia sniping undergirding the Supreme Court’s very welcome 5-4 decision to ban juvenile executions. To keep things in perspective, the only other nations besides us that have put juveniles to death since 2000 are China, Iran, Pakistan, and the Congo…not exactly what you’d call the Axis of Freedom.

Dubya’s Man at Justice.

“Alberto Gonzales has paved the way of his own advancement with memos that are intellectually slovenly, that impute definitive powers to the executive, and whose attempts at shirking the basic moral precepts of international humanitarian law are not very skillful. If he is confirmed as attorney general, our nation will be shamed, shunned and endangered.” As the Gonzales hearings begin on Capitol Hill, Salon does an able job of exposing his egregious yes-man tendencies in both the torture memos and, previously, in managing Governor Dubya’s execution sprees. Update: Yet, the Dems roll over.

Ashcroft Justice.

In keeping with his Judge Danforth-like predilections, Attorney General Ashcroft issued an edict that would limit plea bargains and lawyerly discretion over which charges to bring in a federal suit. Again, when will Ashcroft follow his own pronouncements, lock up his nephew, and throw away the key?

“Patriots” at Work.

The LA Times relates the sad story of Ansar Mahmood, who has paid a heavy price for being a Muslim in America after 9/11. In not-unrelated news, Ashcroft cracks down on lenient sentencing. Perhaps they’ll reconsider his nephew’s drug bust, then.