ABA Objects to Death Penalty Proposal
The ABA is objecting to proposed rules that would permit streamlined habeas review in capital cases.
The rules implement a little-noticed provision in the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to permit states to use fast-track death penalty procedures if they provide adequate legal counsel, ABAJournal.com noted in a prior post. Previously, judges had the power to decide whether states met minimum standards.
The ABA says the proposed rules fail to ensure the appointment of competent counsel and do not establish uniform standards for states seeking to use the fast-track system. As a result, the proposals disregard significant aspects of the implementing legislation, the ABA says in a press release.
“The Justice Department has proposed an unworkable mechanism that will result in arbitrary and capricious agency action,” the ABA said in its comments filed with the department on Aug. 25.
“At a minimum, the proposed rule should require the state applicant to proffer some evidence that the state’s mechanism actually results in the appointment of competent post-conviction counsel to indigent capital defendants (such as a list of the proposed names of qualified attorneys who are eligible to be appointed), the standards of competency for the appointment of counsel (so that the standards for selection of eligible counsel are clear), and the mechanism for compensation and expense reimbursement for counsel,” according to the ABA comments.
