Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

Under a proposed rule being finalized by the Justice Department, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be allowed to shorten, or ‘fast-track,’ inmate appeals in death penalty cases.

The controversial proposal came about under a little known provision in amendments to the Patriot Act.

The language in the Patriot Act modifies provisions in death penalty cases under 28 U.S.C. 2261, et seq..

Death row inmates would have less time to file habeas petitions in federal appeals courts challenging their convictions and resulting death row sentences. Instead of a full year to file an appeal, they would get less than half that time — 180 days. Federal appellate judges would also have less time to decide death row appeals.

L.A. Times’ D.C. reporter Rick Schmitt, broke the story yesterday, warning that “the move to shorten the appeals process and effectively speed up executions comes at a time of growing national concern about the fairness of the death penalty.”

The DOJ’s is seeking public comment on the proposed rule. That means anyone has until September 24, 2007 to write the DOJ to critique or praise the proposal.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse told the Washington Post that the DOJ wanted “to ensure ample opportunity” for pubic comment about the changes so that advocacy groups had time to detail their objections to the proposed changes.

While this blog does not yet know exactly where you need to send objections to the proposal rules that would let the Attorney General potentially speed up death row executions, you can contact Roehrkasse at the DOJ to find out just how to do that.

Brian Roehrkasse
Director of Public Affairs
U.S. Department of Justice
E-mail: Brian.Roehrkasse@usdoj.gov
Tel: (202) 616-2777

Interested parties may also wish to mail and fax the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy here:

Office of Legal Policy
U.S. Department of Justice
Room 4234 Main Justice Building
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Telephone: (202) 514-4601
Fax: (202) 514-2424