Thursday, June 12, 2014

Team Obama's review of the Death Penalty risks backlash from States

The generations-old debate over capital punishment has shifted to Washington, where President Obama’s Justice Department has launched a national review of the death penalty. 
Attorney General Eric Holder’s inquiry, initiated last month following a mishandled execution in Oklahoma, is still in its early stages. The effort includes a look at state death penalty protocols, though its scope and ultimate implications are not yet clear.
But by ordering up the review, Obama is raising questions about what role, if any, the federal government should have on an issue that is traditionally the province of the states. 
Some congressional Republicans are warning the administration to tread lightly.
“I think the president’s got enough to do … without sticking his finger into state government,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “They better stick to the things that, under the Constitution, are his responsibility.” 
Obama, a supporter of the death penalty in rare cases, has been relatively quiet on the subject throughout his presidency. On his watch, however, the Justice Department has imposed a moratorium on federal executions, while the agency studies policies employed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The death penalty returned to the fore in late April, with the execution of convicted killer Clayton Lockett, who reportedly writhed in pain after he was given the first part of a three-drug lethal cocktail and ultimately died of a heart attack. 
Obama called the mishap “deeply troubling” and ordered a federal review not just of the issues at play in the Oklahoma case, but also the application of the death penalty generally.
"Racial bias. Uneven application of the death penalty. Situations in which there were individuals on death row who later on were discovered to be innocent … all of these do raise significant questions about how the death penalty is being applied," Obama said last month. “I think as a society, we have to ask ourselves some difficult and profound questions.” 
Justice Department spokeswoman Ellen Canale said the agency, at the president’s direction, had expanded the pre-existing review “to include a survey of state-level protocols and related policy issues.” The agency declined to release details about the initiative's timeline or what form its conclusions might take.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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