Inject them quickly, Gonzo, Before the DNA Results Come Back!

By: soccerdem
Published On: 8/15/2007 10:22:03 AM

So now the ASS, (Administration Sans Shame) is giving expanded powers to hasten death penalty cases, under new regulations being developed by, guess whom, the Justice Dept.

Gonzo would receive the authority to approve "fast track" procedures by states in death penalty cases, to allow them "to carry out sentences more speedily and with fewer opportunities for appeal, if these states provide adequate representation for capital defendants." Washingto Post, today.  I assume that defense lawyers sleeping throughout the trial represents "adequate representation."

Previously, Gonzo and the Decider spent little time reviewing these cases before ordering the needle, sometimes as little as an average of 5 minutes, if you parse the numbers previously released.  That is the definition of the Decider's "extensive, thoughtful review of all death penalty cases."  Gonzo quickly reviews, Bush rubber stamps, push in the needle before the DNA can be tested.

Hell, Fed prosecutors are decrying this, and when PROSECUTORS don't want swift penalties applied, you know something is rotten in Denmark-on-the-Potomac. 

Paul Charlton, an Arizona Fed prosecutor, argued last year against pursuing a death sentence in a case in which no body was found.  He and other U.S. attorneys were fired last year because of "clashes with Gonzales and his aids over death penalty issues.... Both Gonzales and ...Ashcroft have supported the aggresive use death penalty authority in the Federal courts."  They claimed there were too many lengthy impediments in the system of legal challenges.  Of course, it's only a life--let's hurry.

Now, I'm not against the death penalty.  But in this DNA age and in consideration of the recent releases of men previously found guilty of murder, especially in cases with so-called exemplary testimony by eye witnesses ("I definately can identify the guy running away, Judge.  He was black, average height, muscular, and no, I didn't see his face), haste makes waste of lives.

To put this Gonzo of a human being in charge of speeded-up procedures with human lives at stake is not only ghastly moronic, it is immoral to an unthinkable degree.  Jesus wept.


Comments



This is absolutely unbelievable...nah, from them it's what's I'd expect (Dianne - 8/15/2007 11:08:33 AM)
Have these monsters no shame?  A very disturbing but notable paragraph in the article:

Kase and other defense lawyers also say the underlying legislation is faulty because it allows Gonzales, who is the nation's chief prosecutor, to effectively determine the pace of executions.

As I said in one of my diaries:

Gonzales: Sherriff, Judge, and Jury...and now Executioner.



Gonzales has been here before. (Randy Klear - 8/16/2007 2:20:21 PM)
Back when Bush was a mere governor and Gonzo was his state consigliere, the state of Texas arrested, prosecuted and fried a number of Mexican nationals without notifying the Mexican government, in violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which the US Senate ratified in 1969.  When questioned by the State Department about this, Gonzales replied that the state of Texas didn't need to comply because it didn't sign the treaty.

It's hard to imagine any better behavior now.



Charlton was on NPR today (Catzmaw - 8/17/2007 2:00:07 AM)
explaining the situation.  He made a lot of sense to me.  Countering him was some clown from a national crime victims lobby who called Charlton a "disgruntled employee", questioned his devotion to the death penalty, and otherwise implied that Charlton's just being a selfish jerk for not wanting to kill the first guy the cops hit on as a suspect in any murder prosecution. 

Call me callous, but I can't trust anyone who is a professional victim. 



Troubling!! (mmc0412 - 8/17/2007 12:31:52 PM)
And this is a scary quote, "questioned his devotion to the death penalty".  Devotion to the death penalty?  I suppose being devoted to a cause is worthy, but devoted to the death penalty?  Sounds like they want to put people to death when they're accused of crimes instead of when they're found guilty.


Just trust me said Gonzo (Teddy - 8/17/2007 10:52:27 AM)
Isn't this the same Gonazales that Congress just trusted in the FISA reform act to decide if an American's communications need to be spied upon without bothering with the (nano-second) procedure of approval by the FISA (republican-dominated) Court? He promised not to abuse the authority or to use it for straight domestic spying, and we had to accept his promise inasmuch as there is NO oversight whatsoever, as I recall. And then doesn't the President, based on Gonzo's advice, decide if "any person," including any American, is impeding the Iraq War, or even intending to impede the war--- so the President can therefore seize all that individual's assets, freeze their bank accounts, etc?

And now this brilliant decision, letting all the same suspects (Bush-Gonzales) hasten execution of convicted criminals. Sounds like what we have here is not a democratically based government, but a Mafia-type thug-ocracy.