Leopold: Former USA Paul Charlton Criticizes of Gonzo's New Powers on Death Penalty Cases.

From Truthout:

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t Report
Wednesday 15 August 2007

Paul Charlton, the former US attorney for Arizona who was fired last year for refusing Justice Department (DOJ) orders to seek the death penalty in a drug-related murder case, said on Tuesday a new law authorizing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to fast track executions in various states is an ill-conceived plan that gives power to an official who has little regard for capital punishment cases.

"In my own personal experience with the AG, and having watched his testimony regarding my dealings with him, I know that the AG reflects little on the issue of the death penalty," Charlton said in an interview on Tuesday.

"What gives me to pause is not the need for the law, but that the individual who will be deciding if the states merit such a change will be the attorney general."

The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that the DOJ is finalizing new rules that would allow Gonzales to cut the time death row inmates have to appeal their convictions in federal courts and speed up executions. The Times reported that the new provision, tucked away in the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, comes "at a time of growing national concern about the fairness of the death penalty, underscored by the use of DNA testing to establish the innocence of more than a dozen death row inmates in recent years."

"A number of states, including my own, have called for such a change in the law," Charlton said. "As I understand the new rules, they will only affect state prosecutions. The rules will do so by limiting the amount of time allowed to the federal courts as they review the state courts' decisions to execute an individual. For me, it is not, I should be clear, an issue of whether to seek death or to accelerate the process that leads to the ultimate penalty.Those are issues which reasonable people may disagree. What all should agree upon is the idea that the position of attorney general demands an individual who thoughtfully weighs those issues before coming to a conclusion."