If anyone deserves execution, the man who murdered 11 mostly elderly people at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday certainly seems like a strong contender. But regardless of how you feel about the death penalty, Jacob Sullum says, the Justice Department’s decision to pursue it in this case should trouble you if you worry about an overweening federal government, value the principle underlying the constitutional ban on double jeopardy, or think the government ought to punish people for their actions rather than their beliefs.
The federal criminal complaint against accused Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers charges him with 29 felonies, including 11 violations of 18 USC 247, which authorizes the death penalty for fatally obstructing any person’s “free exercise of religious beliefs.” Such a crime can be prosecuted in federal court as long as it “is in or affects interstate or foreign commerce.” To give you a sense of how loose that requirement is, the complaint asserts that it’s met because the guns Bowers used “were not manufactured in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
from Hit & Run https://ift.tt/2AFiGPj
via IFTTT