Justice Department Making a Death Penalty Power Grab

Today, the Justice Department announced that it would be putting into effect one of the lesser known provisions of the Patriot Act that would allow the Attorney General to “fast-track” death penalty cases.

This is the exact reason why I have always been against the death penalty. Let’s start with the premeditated, cold-blooded murder of a defenseless — and occasionally innocent — human being. Let’s add a state that is empowered by law to commit that atrocity. Then let’s throw in an administration with clear track record of ignoring reason, complexity and nuance when it suited their best interests politically.

Just look at the prosecution of the Iraq war if you want any indicator of just how badly Bush’s cronies are capable of bungling complicated operations. This is the administration who ignored the warnings of the best experts on Iraq because Ahmed Chalabi told them what they wanted to hear. Do you really want the fairness of death penalty cases in your state run by the same people responsible for disbanding the Iraqi army and de-Baathification?

PoliBlog has some great commentary on the issue:

This is yet another example of the Congress’ reflexive response to 9/11: the ceding of more power to the executive (and not really for any reason that would help it fight terrorism). This also seems to be indicative of another example of a complex law being passed without a great deal of scrutiny and debate.

Setting aside the thorny issue of the death penalty itself, it is unclear as to why the AG of the United States should be involved in the process at all. It certainly is yet another example of the recent trend in the Republican Party, i.e., an interest more in power than in supposedly long-held principles (in this case, federalism).

This entire move by the DOJ sends chills rippling across my extremities. How do you feel about it?