Former US Attorney Wary of Gonzales's New Powers

Wednesday 15 August 2007 Paul Charlton, former US attorney for Arizona, told Truthout on Tuesday that a new law authorizing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to fast-track executions is ill-conceived because it gives power to an official who has little regard for capital punishment cases. Charlton was fired last year for refusing Justice Department orders to seek the death penalty in a drug-related murder case.

"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."

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