Puerto Rico Overruled On Death Penalty

I just read about how a jury in Puerto Rico refused to consider the death penalty in a federal criminal case involving two felons because of the territory itself doesn't allow the death penalty and, just as important, is overwhelmingly Catholic. (Catholics oppose capital punishment as fiercely as they do abortion; give my religion credit for being consistent!) Attorney General John Ashcroft, however, has a much different agenda. He wants the jury overruled and to impose the death penalty on these two men, and he doesn't care what the islanders think.

This case has been seen as racist, given that a white male-dominated Justice Department is trying to make sure two Latinos get fried, and as an example how Puerto Rico has fewer rights than the states owing to its "commonwealth" (read colonial) status, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. In most federal capital cases in the fifty states, in which either the jury, the prosecutor, or both, refused to seek the death penalty, Ashcroft is trying to overrule prison sentences (life or otherwise) to force capital punishment down people's throats. Ashcroft, a Missourian and member of the Assemblies of God (which is headquartered in - surprise!- Missouri), has been imposing his belief in capital punishment in this matter wherever and whenever he can, refusing to take local opposition to capital punishment and cultural differences (progressivism in Minnesota, the influence of the Catholic church in Puerto Rico and states like Massachusetts) into consideration.

The good news is that juries are standing up to Ashcroft and his rabid right-wing supporters. Juries in many states - even in pro-death penalty states like Alabama and Mississippi - are increasingly growing skeptical about capital punishment, considering the growing number of cases where innocent men are sent to death row and set free when their innocence is proven. There has been a moratorium on capital punishment in Illinois, where one suspect too many got railroaded and sentenced to die for crimes he did not commit and, thanks to DNA testing proving their innocence, several death row inmates walked out of a jail as free men. The number of Americans who support the death penalty is a minority but still growing. Now's a good time for capital punishment opponents to keep the pressure on. Ashcroft may be a bully, but bullies have a habit for turning tail and running when they can't take what they dish out.