Attorney General Eric Holder has approved the plea deal his predecessor Michael Mukasey rejected. The death penalty will be off the table when trial resumes for Emile Fort.
Not only does Holder's reversal likely spare defendant Emile Fort his life, but it may signal a less aggressive approach to the death penalty in federal court. And it vindicates the local U.S. Attorney's office: Months ago federal prosecutors in San Francisco had recommended a 40-year plea bargain for Fort to their higher-ups in Washington -- only to be rebuffed by Holder's predecessor, Michael Mukasey.
Original Post below:
Sunday 3/1/09:
There are 680 California inmates on death row, but since 1991, only one has been from San Francisco. The last two district attorneys, Kamala Harris and Terrence Hallinan, did not seek the death penalty for any defendants.
Federally, there are two death penalty prosecutions underway in San Francisco. In one case, the U.S. Attorney had agreed to a 40 year plea deal, but the Bush Justice Department, under Michael Mukasey, overruled the prosecutor. Trial began last week.
The capital trial of the other defendant, Dennis Cyrus, age 24, for gang-related murders, also began Wednesday, before a different jury. On Friday, the judge in Cyrus' case canceled court.
Is the Obama Justice Department having second thoughts about Ashcroft, Gonzales and Mukasey's policies of overruling local U.S. Attorneys' decisions not to seek death?
It's a possibility. The Judge said only that "a legal issue" had arisen. Attorney General Holder may be reviewing the case.
Holder said in 2000 that he was "personally and professionally disturbed" by a Justice Department report showing that racial minorities were defendants in 80 percent of the death penalty prosecutions sought by local U.S. attorneys.
Read on.
1 comment:
All ways a tuff topic to discuss. Sometimes it's better to know nothing then know the truth. Many innocent men have been killed with the death penalty. One case I can never forget was a young black man who was forced to confess to a crime and quickly put to death. He always said he was told to admit to the crime of murder. Many years later after many more unsolved murders a white man in jail admitted to the murder and others. He told how he helped the police look for a black man to arrest because the murder was of a little white girl. DNA wasn't around at the time but evidence was kept. The test proved the inmate was the right man. But it was the coldness of the Proescutor that hit me the hardest. When asked about the black man put to death as he was innocent the Prosector said well if he didn't commit a crime he would have so we said the taxpayers money and hard. Over many years I witness men being released from jail after serving 25 years in jail for crimes they didn't commit. Eric Holder like many good lawyers know you have to have so much proof to put a person in jail.
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