Let’s see, Alberto Gonzales is in the political dog house.
For some folks, he’s been in the dog house for a very long time, since he crafted the legal contortionism that the White House has used to justify the, um, “strenuous” forms of interrogation the administration has pursued in the war in Iraq and the war on terror.
For many more folks, he’s in the dog house over politically motivated firings of federal attorneys and his fast-and-loose games with honesty in the Congressional inquiries resulting therefrom.
That lays the groundwork for the latest installment in the “What are they Thinking” game when following Congress. From the Los Angeles Times:
The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts.
The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year’s reauthorization of the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to decide whether individual states are providing adequate counsel for defendants in death penalty cases. The authority has been held by federal judges.
Under the rules now being prepared, if a state requested it and Gonzales agreed, prosecutors could use “fast track” procedures that could shave years off the time that a death row inmate has to appeal to the federal courts after conviction in a state court.
The move to shorten the appeals process and effectively speed up executions comes at a time of growing national concern about the fairness of the death penalty, underscored by the use of DNA testing to establish the innocence of more than a dozen death row inmates in recent years.
I’m not a fan at recent attempts to bypass judicial oversight when it comes to the tactics sought by the Administration and seemingly blessed by Congress in the war on terror. However there’s just something so wrong about the notion of giving a guy who blessed torture and who lies under oath the power to accelerate executions.