Executive overreach, midweek update
The Patriot Act now lets the Justice Department fiddle with the death penalty:
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.
Add to the catalog of horrors here. Because when toy stores brazenly sell fake Rubik’s Cubes you know Osama has triumphed. Pretty soon we’ll be able to liveblog the erosion of our freedoms.
Dan
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