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When a death penalty defendant smears feces on his face, in front of the jury.

By Marks & Katz, LLC

  Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). The death penalty is a barbaric system thinly masquerading in the United States as something not barbaric.  A legitimate debate among the most skilled of criminal defense lawyers has taken place before -- and probably still continues and rages -- about whether refusing to defend capital cases is more justified than defending them. On the one hand, when qualified lawyers refuse to defend capital defendants, the defendants are shortchanged in their criminal defense, but, perhaps, their refusal would reduce the number of death penalty prosecutions and convictions, lest capital sentences be overturned for ineffective assistance of counsel findings later on down the line (of course, the courts have set a high burden for proving ineffective assistance of counsel)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Underdog on April 11, 2008 (boomark / email).