Bush's Bid for a Death Penalty Fast Track

For a man who claims to be so concerned with the sanctity of human life, President Bush has overseen the execution of a remarkable number of people. In his eight years as Governor of Texas he sent 152 prisoners to their deaths, a record that has never been matched before or since.

Now he'd really like to kill more people and for the whole process to be fast-tracked.

The US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales -- Mr Bush's top legal adviser during the spree of executions in Texas in the 1990s -- is putting finishing touches to regulations, inspired by recent anti-terrorism legislation, that would allow states to turn to the Justice Department, instead of the federal courts, as a key arbiter in deciding whether prisoners live or die.

In some instances, prisoners would have significantly less time to file federal appeals, and the appeals courts significantly less time to respond. On the question of whether defendants received adequate representation at trial -- a key issue in many cases, especially in southern states with no formal public defender system -- the Attorney General would be the sole decision-maker.

Since Mr Gonzales is a prosecutor, not a judge, and since he has a track record of favouring death in almost every capital case brought before him, the regulations would, in effect, remove a crucial safety net for prisoners who feel they have been wrongly convicted.

Elisabeth Semel, a death penalty specialist at the University of California law school in Berkeley, said the intention of the proposed regulation was clear: "To make it more difficult for people who have been sentenced to death in state courts, including those sentenced without adequate representation and resources, to avoid being executed."

The fact that the US still employs the death penalty places her amongst some strange bedfellows for a world leader. There is no other industrialised nation which continues with this barbaric practice. Russia is alone among the biggies in keeping the death penalty on the books, although it is more than ten years since the Russian's actually executed anyone; and she did - on 28 February 1996 - make a commitment to the European Union that she would abolish this practice completely.

Here is the company the US finds herself in:

AFGHANISTAN, ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, BAHAMAS, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH, BARBADOS, BELARUS, BELIZE, BOTSWANA, BURUNDI, CAMEROON, CHAD, CHINA, COMOROS, CONGO (Democratic Republic), CUBA, DOMINICA, EGYPT, EQUATORIAL GUINEA, ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, GUATEMALA, GUINEA, GUYANA, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAN, IRAQ, JAMAICA, JAPAN, JORDAN, KAZAKSTAN, KOREA (North), KOREA (South), KUWAIT, LAOS, LEBANON, LESOTHO, LIBYA, MALAYSIA, MONGOLIA, NIGERIA, OMAN, PAKISTAN, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, QATAR, SAINT CHRISTOPHER & NEVIS, SAINT LUCIA, SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES, SAUDI ARABIA, SIERRA LEONE, SINGAPORE, SOMALIA, SUDAN, SYRIA, TAIWAN, TAJIKISTAN, TANZANIA, THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, UGANDA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, UZBEKISTAN, VIET NAM, YEMEN, ZIMBABWE

And here is the list of nations who have outlawed the death penalty for all crimes:

ALBANIA, ANDORRA, ANGOLA, ARMENIA, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, AZERBAIJAN, BELGIUM, BHUTAN, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, BULGARIA, CAMBODIA, CANADA, CAPE VERDE, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, COTE D'IVOIRE, CROATIA, CYPRUS, CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK, DJIBOUTI, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, ESTONIA, FINLAND, FRANCE, GEORGIA, GERMANY, GREECE, GUINEA-BISSAU, HAITI, HONDURAS, HUNGARY, ICELAND, IRELAND, ITALY, KIRIBATI, LIBERIA, LIECHTENSTEIN, LITHUANIA, LUXEMBOURG, MACEDONIA (former Yugoslav Republic), MALTA, MARSHALL ISLANDS, MAURITIUS, MEXICO, MICRONESIA (Federated States), MOLDOVA, MONACO, MONTENEGRO, MOZAMBIQUE, NAMIBIA, NEPAL, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA, NIUE, NORWAY, PALAU, PANAMA, PARAGUAY, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, PORTUGAL, ROMANIA, RWANDA, SAMOA, SAN MARINO, SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE, SENEGAL, SERBIA, SEYCHELLES, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOLOMON ISLANDS, SOUTH AFRICA, SPAIN, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TIMOR-LESTE, TURKEY, TURKMENISTAN, TUVALU, UKRAINE, UNITED KINGDOM, URUGUAY, VANUATU, VATICAN CITY STATE, VENEZUELA.

Even Micronesia no longer continue this barbaric practice which Bush, rather than consider banishing, is actually attempting to speed up and kill people quicker with less chance of an appeal. By introducing these regulations Bush will make it harder for a wrongfully convicted person to have their appeal properly heard. And it's not as if the US has never come across a person on death row who shouldn't be there...

Kenny Richey, a Scot who has been on Ohio's death row for close to 20 years, is still alive -- and, it appears, on the verge of having his sentence quashed -- because of the intervention of a federal appeals court on his behalf.

Four years ago, a Missouri man, Joe Amrine, was released after 17 years on death row after the collapse of all evidence that led to his conviction for a jail murder. The state argued, with a straight face, that even the establishment of innocence was not a reason to stop his execution, because nothing had been procedurally incorrect about his original trial. Again, it was a federal appeals court that weighed in on Amrine's behalf.

They actually argued that an innocent man should go to his death because nothing had been procedurally incorrect about his original trial.

I find the fact that the US still allows the death penalty to be carried out to be one of the strangest things about the world's leading superpower. It is natural to expect that the world's leading power would be amongst the world's most civilised nations and yet the US finds itself alongside regimes like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan when it comes to this issue.

So how much thought did Bush give to the 152 people who he sent to their deaths?

According to official memos, Governor Bush would give the green light to executions based on no more than a half-hour briefing from Mr Gonzales. Mr Gonzales, in turn, often omitted mitigating evidence.

Thankfully, I will never be in the position where I have to decide whether or not someone lives or dies; but, if I were, I'd want more than half an hour to gather all the relevant facts and I would certainly want to hear the mitigating evidence.

Bush once again seeks to take power from the courts and place it in the hands of the executive with Gonzales alone being the person who decides who lives and who dies.

The very fact that this habitual liar continues to serve as the US Attorney General is surreal enough, but to put such an immoral person in charge as the sole arbiter for someone's life or death is simply obscene.

To put such power in the hands of the Attorney General rather than the federal appeals court is scandalous at any time. But to do so whilst Gonzales occupies the office simply beggars belief. A suspected perjurer will now decide who lives and who dies.

You couldn't make this shit up...

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