That should be the new motto of the Bush Administration as it gears up for war on Iraq…AND our nation’s criminals.
The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/15/arts/theater/15DEAT.html?pagewanted=2 profiled Mary Jo White, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District (New York), whose views of the death penalty have been broadening. She decried John Ashcroft’s decision to reject thirty plea agreements worked out by U.S. attorneys with murder suspects; forcing these U.S. Attorneys to prosecute for first degree murder and death. An earlier NYT article theorized that the Bush Administration is purposely targeting New York “as a lesson,” where U.S. Attorneys hardly ever seek execution and where juries almost never approve it.
Ms. White has followed the controversy surrounding Mr. Ashcroft’s decisions to overrule local prosecutors who decided not to seek the death penalty, including a case in which the defendant agreed to testify against others tied to a deadly Colombian drug ring in exchange for a life sentence. She stressed that she had no inside knowledge of the cases, but she did not mince words about Mr. Ashcroft’s approach.
“It’s very, very dangerous on its face, and it’s troubling, because it doesn’t make sense from a law enforcement perspective,” she said.
