Rule Change Shifts Death Penalty Responsibilities to Gonzales ""
"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."
Yep, another "little-noticed provision in last year's reauthorization of the Patriot Act". When are people going to read the bill they vote for? I read the original patriot act, I guess I should read the reauthorization. Maybe I can find more little-noticed provisions.
"Some Arizona officials say the new procedures are long overdue. 'If you are going to have the death penalty at all, it shouldn't take 20 to 25 years,' said Kent Cattani, the chief capital litigation counsel in the Arizona attorney general's office. 'Either get rid of it altogether, or try to have a good system in state courts and then accelerate it through the federal courts.' On the other side, advocates for death row inmates and some legal experts say the rules would make a bad system worse."
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