You know, he’s got a point. If the Death Penalty is going to be used disproportionately and unfairly in some states, it’s only fair (albeit in a sick, sadistic kind of way) that it be used improperly against defendants straight across the board.
Ask yourself this: how would you like to be given the Death Penalty for committing some terrorist act without being given a chance to have any sort of a real trial? That’s where they’re going with this.
Ashcroft Pushes Executions in More
Cases in New York By Benjamin Weiser and William Glaberson for the
NY Times.
Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered United States attorneys in
New York and Connecticut to seek the death penalty for a dozen
defendants in cases in which prosecutors had recommended against or did
not ask for capital punishment, according to lawyers who follow the
issue. Those are nearly half of all the cases nationwide in which Mr.
Ashcroft has rejected prosecutors’ recommendations in a death penalty
case.
Mr. Ashcroft’s decision to reject the confidential recommendations of
the federal prosecutors for 10 defendants in New York and 2 in
Connecticut is part of an aggressive effort to assure nationwide
consistency in decisions to seek the federal death penalty, federal
officials say.
Under the law, the attorney general has final approval on whether to
seek the death penalty in federal cases…
Mr. Ashcroft’s decision in that case was disclosed to lawyers in New
York this week, just days after it was revealed that he had rejected the
recommendation of federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and ordered them to
seek the death penalty against a murder suspect on Long Island who had
already agreed to plead guilty in exchange for testimony against others
in a dangerous Colombian drug ring.
The Justice Department would not comment on Mr. Ashcroft’s decisions
involving the latest three defendants, which were related to The New
York Times by a defense lawyer who was told about the matter…
Mr. Ashcroft’s aggressive approach in the New York region was criticized
yesterday by lawyers who said the best way to eliminate geographic
disparities in capital punishment was not to increase its use but to
reduce it. No federal court jury in New York City has yet returned a
verdict for the death penalty since the revised federal capital
punishment laws were passed more than a decade ago.
“They want to set a consistent national standard for these cases,” said
David A. Ruhnke, who represents a defendant in the new Manhattan case,
“but the standards they’re using are the standards used by Texas
district attorneys running for re-election.”