Shortly after arriving at the Justice Department nearly four years ago, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was faced with a new internal study that raised serious questions about the application of the federal death penalty.
A small number of federal districts, including pockets of Texas and Virginia, were accounting for the bulk of death cases. Experts decried the geographical disparities.
For Ashcroft, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, the solution was to seek the death penalty more often and more widely.
Attorney General Asshat is an evangelical Christian and is vehemently "pro-life." So when he sees that too many people are being killed by the federal government in Texas and Virginia, what's his solution? Kill more people everywhere else, so it won't look so bad. Fortunately, his plan hasn't worked very well.
Details are here in an excellent (and timely) piece from Richard B. Schmitt of the Los Angeles Times.