From The Washington Post:
"CONGRESS HAS a novel response to the rash of prisoners over the past few years who have been exonerated of capital crimes after being tried and convicted: Keep similar cases out of court. Both chambers of the national legislature are quietly moving a particularly ugly piece of legislation designed to gut the legal means by which prisoners prove their innocence....
For a great many capital cases, the bill would eliminate federal review entirely. Federal courts would be unable to review almost all capital convictions from states certified by the Justice Department as providing competent counsel to convicts to challenge their convictions under state procedures. Although the bill, versions of which differ slightly between the chambers, provides a purported exception for cases in which new evidence completely undermines a conviction, this is drawn so narrowly that it is likely to be useless -- even in identifying cases of actual innocence....
The legislation would be simply laughable, except that it has alarming momentum. A House subcommittee held a hearing recently, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold one and then mark up the bill this week....It is no exaggeration to say that if this bill becomes law, it will consign innocent people to long-term incarceration or death."
This is a good editorial (surprising from the WP these days), but it has one major flaw. It overlooks the fact that the rabid Bushist Party apparatchiks pushing this bill simply do not care if they consign innocent people to long-term incarceration or death. After all, that's what the Dear Leader does every day in his "war on terror."
