One more vote against capital punishment

[pritchke]

I know the death penalty has been beat to death but I found this article interesting. Especially the disturbing instance were evidence turned up and prosecutors wanted to go ahead a kill the guy anyway.

Published on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 by the Seattle Times
Not All Americans In Tune With Ashcroft's Blood Lust
by Froma Harrop

Attorney General John Ashcroft is a religious conservative who sees no conflict between his Christian beliefs and his blood lust to want more people executed. That large numbers of Americans, though still a minority, find the death penalty morally repellent does not sway him. That many of these death-penalty opponents cede nothing to him on claims of religious devotion also makes little impression.

Because feelings on capital punishment vary greatly from region to region, Ashcroft's predecessor, Clinton appointee Janet Reno, had let local prosecutors decide when to seek the death penalty. The Bush Justice Department has broken with this practice and often overrules prosecutors who don't ask for the death penalty.

Puerto Rico now seethes over one such death-penalty case. Its 1952 Constitution specifically outlaws capital punishment. The people are overwhelmingly Catholic, and the Catholic Church staunchly opposes the death penalty. The crime at issue was a gruesome kidnapping-murder, but not something that would necessarily interest the federal government. To Puerto Rican eyes, the Justice Department is simply hot to execute two bad Latino men.

Much of the outrage, no doubt, stems from Puerto Rican sensitivity regarding the island's autonomy. As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico inhabits something of a political limbo in its relationship with the mainland.

But a number of bona-fide states also feel trampled by a federal government intent on forcing a Southern-conservative culture on the entire nation. In New York State, for example, the Justice Department has overruled at least 10 prosecutors for failing to call for capital punishment in federal cases.

Having government break the taboo on the deliberate taking of a person's life is itself highly disturbing. But the possibility that the state might execute someone by mistake is unbearable.

Rhode Island abolished the death penalty in 1852, after it hanged an almost certainly innocent man. John Gordon, an Irish immigrant, had gone to the gallows for conspiracy to commit murder. It was a time of considerable anti-Irish bias, and the victim had been a prominent factory owner. Gordon was executed two months before the scheduled trial of his alleged co-conspirator, a brother. The brother was eventually acquitted of the charges.

Ohio has freed Gary Lemar James, who has spent 26 years in jail for allegedly killing a security guard in a bank robbery. New evidence shows he didn't do it. In 2000, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted all executions in his state after learning that 13 men on death row had been exonerated of their crimes since 1977.

A recent story from Ashcroft's home state of Missouri should send chills down the spine of any merciful human being. A man was awaiting execution for supposedly killing a fellow inmate when his accusers took back their story. Prosecutors argued for executing him anyway — over the technicality that he had been late in submitting the new information. Fortunately, the state Supreme Court intervened, noting that a condemned man should always be allowed to prove his innocence.

The Justice Department claims it just wants to ensure that the death penalty is applied "in a consistent and fair manner across the country." As department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock put it, "What we are trying to avoid is one standard in Georgia and another in Vermont."

That's right. Everyone's standards must now be Georgia's — or what she thinks they are.

Actually, revulsion against the death penalty may be spreading to places usually deemed favorable to capital punishment. Juries have refused to impose the death penalty in 15 of the last 16 trials in which federal prosecutors sought it. The states involved included such conservative strongholds as Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia and Tennessee.

The rate of failure in obtaining jury decisions backing the death penalty is far higher than in years past. This could be a statistical fluke. Or it could reflect public horror following a spate of reports on wrongfully convicted death-row inmates.

Just when the national tide appears to be turning against the death penalty, the moral primitives at the Justice Department seem intent on accelerating its use. Perhaps Ashcroft and other righteous fans of capital punishment think their support of state-sanctioned killing will seem less ugly if everyone else is made over in their image. It won't.

[ 07-25-2003, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Timber Loftis]

So much for the Republican lip-service paid to State's Rights.

[khazadman]

One way to solve the problem with Puerto Rico is to sever ties with them. But as for the states I say let them decide if they will allow capital punishment. Let the people decide it, not the limp-wristed, weak kneed politicians. But they will also need to strengthen the rules on evidence.

[Reeka]

It is my understandin that Puerto Rico periodically votes to:

1) Become the 51st states

2) Become an independent nation

3) Maintain the status quo.

Thus far, they have voted to maintain the status quo.