Lots of Tennessee views on a faster waltz to executions

Yesterday’s Tennessean had three pieces (one editorial and two commentaries) about the new proposed rules that would enable the US Attorney General to sign off on ‘fast tracking’ death penalty appeals under the AEDPA.  Here are the headlines with links:

• Change would turn capital cases into reckless affairs

• Speeding appeals will increase death errors

• Other remedies exist to move cases along

Though I laud thoughtful consideration of any sentencing issues, I sure would prefer this much time and attention being paid to some other far more troubling and consequential aspects of federal sentencing law and policy (such as the continued reliance on acquitted conduct at non-capital sentencing or even the still unexplained hiatus on federal executions).

Some recent related posts:

• Speeding up the fast track to more capital litigation
• Documenting and dissecting death’s delay
• “Who Survives on Death Row?”
• A (justifiable?) rant against lengthy death penalty appeals
• Suicides pass executions on death row in California
• Why is the Bush Administration (secretly?) accepting a de facto moratorium on federal executions?