AMERICAN DESIRE FOR MERCY UNDERMINED

Justice Department seeks to make California, New York, Connecticut a little
more like Texas.

Some troubling news items -- two in the last week -- have been coming out of
the Justice Department under U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that
suggest a stunning disrespect for the political decisions of the American
people.

In a federal case in California, a state in which voters have approved the
use of marijuana for medical purposes, a man named Ed Rosenthal was
convicted by a jury for growing marijuana.

What the jury was not allowed to hear was that Rosenthal, acting as "an
officer of the city" of Oakland, Calif., under Oakland's medical marijuana
ordinance, was growing starter plants that were to be distributed to
seriously ill patients.

A federal judge had ruled that Rosenthal's defense could not include the
fact that he was operating under the auspices of the state law.

When five of the jurors who had convicted him learned about this after the
fact, they publicly denounced the conviction and apologized to Rosenthal. In
a public statement, the jurors said they would not have decided to convict
if they had been allowed to consider the state law.

"We, as a jury, truly were kept in the dark," said the jury foreman. "I
never want to see this happen again."

In other news, Ashcroft rejected the plea agreement of a murder and drug
distribution suspect who offered to cooperate to avoid a possible death
sentence.

Federal prosecutors were reported to be dismayed that Ashcroft had rejected
the plea agreement recommended by a prosecutor in the Long Island, N.Y.,
court case. They expect that far fewer defendants facing the death penalty
will be willing to cooperate with federal investigators now.

And Ashcroft recently ordered federal prosecutors in New York and
Connecticut to seek the death penalty in 12 cases in which the death penalty
had not been recommended.

The Justice Department explained it was trying to make more consistent the
use of the death penalty nationwide.

"They want to set a consistent national standard for these cases," defense
attorney David Ruhnke said in a New York Times story. "But the standards
they're using are the standards used by Texas district attorneys running for
re-election."

We agree with those who say that if the Justice Department wants more
consistent application of capital punishment, it should reduce the number of
defendants facing the death penalty in regions where it is used most
heavily, instead of increasing the number of death penalty cases in parts of
the country resistant to its use.

Both news stories show a disturbing trend of the federal government imposing
draconian, retributive rules when the American people prefer mercy and
rehabilitation instead.