Let's be sure to kill the kid too.

The dead felled by the snipers' three-week rampage deserved a dignified pursuit of justice, but they will not get it. The prospect of headlines and political advantage have proved too seductive for Washington-area prosecutors, who are practically trampling each other for the right to execute the accused. Their conduct is one more stain on the already mottled image of American jurisprudence. . .
Justice would be satisfied with a sentence that forced Malvo-- again, if he is guilty--to grow old and feeble behind bars. But prosecutors seeking political advantage will only be satisfied with his death.
--Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor, The Atlanta Constitution.

The Ghouls of Justice have taken over from the rules of justice. We saw it coming as soon as Muhammad and Malvo were apprehended: the prosecutors squabbling not only over turf in this case, but arguing for their rights on the basis of, “We can kill the kid too, and you can’t.” The perceived desired outcome—extreme punishment for the guilty—has taken over from due process. According to this depraved logic, Maryland should be deprived of trying the accused on the grounds that they can’t execute the seventeen-year-old under their laws, even if they suspend their “moratorium” on executions and get the grown-up.

The media cooperated from the very beginning, consistently referring to the seventeen-year-old Malvo as a “man,” though if he were still a student in any of the high schools I’ve been inside, he would use a restroom with “boys” on the door.

I don’t know who should prosecute first, and I don’t know what penalty should be exacted if there is a guilty verdict. I am positive, however, that the trial venue should be established without regard to “who can kill the kid.”

If this case has moral ignificance at all (and it did until the accused were caught and the turf battles began), it demonstrates that the United States requires a national criminal code—crime in one state is crime in another, with uniform, standardized penalties throughout the land.

Hey, maybe the regulation of interstate commerce granted to the federal government applies to interstate murder. Do you think?