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Feds decide to seek death in local(?) killing in state without the death penalty

By Douglas A. Berman

This local story out of Vermont strikes me as especially notable because it suggests that the Obama Justice Department will be continuing the Bush Justice Department's willingness to pursue federal death penalty charges for awful crimes in states without the death penalty.  Here are the particulars: The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it would seek the death penalty for Michael Jacques, the man accused of killing 12-year-old Brooke Bennett last summer.  Federal officials said Tuesday that Jacques? alleged rape and murder of his young niece was ?especially heinous, cruel [and] depraved? and that the 43-year-old suspect has shown no remorse for the crime he is accused.According to police, Jacques raped and murdered Bennett after luring the girl, with the assistance of another young juvenile, to his home on June 25, 2008 under the pretense that she would be attending a pool party with kids her age...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 25, 2009 (boomark / email).