Gonzales Able to “Fast Track” Executions
Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has the authority to “fast track” executions by shortening the time death row inmates get to appeal their sentences. It is another one of those “little known provisions” in the reauthorized PATRIOT Act, like the provision that Senator Arlen Specter’s (R-Pennsylvania) staff inserted that granted the attorney general the ability to name replacement U.S. attorneys indefinitely.
From the Los Angeles Times:
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.
This, of course, is of concern to communities of color, particularly the black community, because of a disproportionate number of blacks are on death row. And as many may remember, President George W. Bush was widely known for throwing the switch while serving as the Governor of Texas — 131 times, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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