Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
e-mail delivery, click
here. To send
an e-mail to Dan Kennedy, click
here.
For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
GONZALES AND THE DEATH
PENALTY. President Bush's choice for attorney general, Alberto
Gonzales, is getting plenty
of well-deserved scrutiny
today for his role in authorizing the torture of prisoners taken in
Afghanistan and Iraq, and for urging Bush not to extend the
protections of the Geneva Conventions to inmates at Guantánamo
Bay. That latter decision was the subject of a scathing
federal court decision
earlier this week, a decision that at least temporarily put the
military tribunals out of business.
Incredibly, the Gonzales choice may
prove to be unpopular with right-wingers, because he's seen as a
squish on reproductive rights and affirmative action.
Here's something else you need to
know. In 2003, the Atlantic Monthly reported on Gonzales's
role in advising Bush, when he was governor of Texas, about
death-penalty cases and whether those scheduled to die deserved
clemency. You have to be a subscriber to read the
Atlantic article, by
Alan Berlow. But John Dean summarized it for FindLaw.com, and
his
article is freely available
(thanks to Michael
Goldman for passing this
along). A highlight from Dean's piece:
Berlow writes that the
memos reflect "an extraordinarily narrow notion of clemency." They
appear to have excluded, for instance, factors such as "mental
illness or incompetence, childhood physical or sexual abuse,
remorse, rehabilitation, racial discrimination in jury selection,
the competence of the legal defense, or disparities in sentences
between co-defendants or among defendants convicted of similar
crimes."
Take the case of Terry
Washington, a thirty-three-year-old mentally retarded man with the
communications skills of a seven-year-old executed in 1997.
Gonzales's clemency memo, according to Berlow, did not even
mention his mental retardation, or his lawyer's failure to call,
at trial, for the testimony of a mental health expert on this
issue. Nor did it mention that the jury never heard about
Washington's history of child abuse; he was one of ten children,
all of whom "were regularly beaten with whips, water hoses,
extension cords, wire hangers, and fan belts."
Justice tempered with
sadism.
OFFICIALLY DEAD. Yasser
Arafat died this morning, according to this
Associated Press dispatch.
I agree with Jeff Jacoby so infrequently
that I want to call your attention to his fine column in today's
Boston Globe on Arafat's
brutal legacy.
And here
is the editorial from the new edition of the Boston Phoenix,
the first part of which deals with the opportunities created by
Arafat's demise.
NEW IN THIS WEEK'S
PHOENIX. Axis
of evil - meet five new
Republican senators who want to make your worst nightmares come
true.
posted at 8:07 AM |
3 comments
|
link
3 Comments:
Dan
It will certainly be interesting to watch the Gonzalez confirmation process. He has been moved up by President Bush ever since he joined the the Governor Bush's Texas administration. His Texas appointments include one to the supreme court. If he is confirmed relatively painlessly you can be sure he will be a US Supreme Court nominee in Bish's second term.
Phil
Ryan Lizza at the New Republic has an interesting piece that speculates that Gonzalez is too moderate for the tastes of many arch-conservatives. Through this lens, Gonzalez as AG is a bone to a loyal follower of Bush and a SCOTUS seat would be ready for a more arch-conservative.
Lizza's speculation is not without merit, but...
AG is a pretty lousy bone to throw a truly loyal follower.
On top of that, Gonzales views on many topics (AA, immigration, death penalty etc) are likely very similar to W's.
My guess is that Gonzales will likely get a Supreme Court nomination if a slot opens up after 2006.
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
