NYLS Prof. Robert Blecker has this op-ed at Fox News with the above title.
Attorney General William Barr should be applauded for announcing Thursday that the federal government will resume executing convicted murderers on death row for the first time since 2003, beginning with five vicious killers in December and January.* * *While the legislation Barr refers to permits a punishment of death, it doesn't compel it. We rely on the Justice Department to seek the death penalty only for the worst of the worst murderers - those who most clearly deserve to die. And we rely on juries in each individual murder case to act as the moral filter and conscience of the community to decide if the death penalty is warranted.Reviewing the despicable crimes of the five men scheduled to be executed, we can safely say that the Justice Department has exercised its prerogative wisely.
Hey Kent, do you share my sense that AG Barr might have made an effort to avoid putting black federal death row inmates at the front of the line for executions?
Are you at all concerned about a possible constitutional challenge to how AG Barr decided who should get executed first?
If you are referring to the first group of five, one of them is black, according to the NYT.
If you are referring to the very first, I don't know if that was a consideration, but I would not think that a difference in execution dates of a couple of months is material. Of course, that does not mean the claim will not be made. Standard operating procedure for the anti-DP bar is to throw anything and everything against the wall in the hope that at least one sticks. But I would not say I am concerned.
Zero chance that the current Supreme Court will accept this argument.