Judge John Gleeson, a promi­nent fed­er­al judge in New York, recent­ly crit­i­cized U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft for reg­u­lar­ly over­rul­ing local pros­e­cu­tors by direct­ing them to seek the death penal­ty though they have rec­om­mend­ed against it. In an arti­cle appear­ing in the November 2003 issue of the Virginia Law Review, Gleeson not­ed that the pol­i­cy ​“under­mines the inves­ti­ga­tion and pros­e­cu­tion of vio­lent crimes.” He stat­ed, ​“For the sake of the death penal­ty in a few more fed­er­al cas­es, sig­nif­i­cant num­bers of mur­der­ers and oth­er crim­i­nals can elude inves­ti­ga­tion and pros­e­cu­tion, and thus remain at large, free to com­mit fur­ther crimes.” Gleeson notes that the pol­i­cy will dis­cour­age defen­dants from coop­er­at­ing in crim­i­nal cas­es in exchange for more lenient sen­tences, and it will like­ly demor­al­ize pros­e­cu­tors who think they know their cas­es bet­ter than Washington offi­cials. The pol­i­cy, he notes, will also drain cru­cial resources from pros­e­cu­tors’ offices because death penal­ty tri­als are cost­ly in time and mon­ey. (New York Times, December 26, 2003) See Federal Death Penalty and New Voices.

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