Religion & Law

Interesting:

Last October, the American Law Institute, the group that established standards for the death penalty in America, voted to withdraw its support of the practice it helped to define. This decision, according to New York Times columnist Adam Liptak, "represents a tectonic shift in legal theory." In his most recent column, he descirbes it as the single most significant development surrounding the death penalty in the past year.

(HT:  America).  Here's more, from Liptak's column:

A study commissioned by the institute said that decades of experience have proved that the system cannot reconcile the twin goals of individualized decisions about who should be executed and systemic fairness. It added that capital punishment is plagued by racial disparities; is enormously expensive even as many defense lawyers are underpaid and some are incompetent; risks executing innocent people; and is undermined by the politics that come with judicial elections.

Not too long ago, Sen. Feingold proposed not too long ago that the federal death penalty be abandoned.  What happened to this effort?  Does anyone know?