Death Penalty Podcast

Yesterday I wrote about whether the death penalty is heading for extinction in the United States. Today I'd like to draw your attention to a podcast found on the National Constitution Center's website featuring answers to questions like:

Does the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause prohibit the death penalty? If not, are some modern methods of execution “barbaric” enough to violate the Clause? What standard should courts use to determine if a punishment is “cruel and unusual”?

Check it out and see if you can follow along with the discussion!

A Remedy for Torture

There is a very interesting case working its way through the American court system concerning torture. An American citizen, who was recently convicted of planning a terrorist attacks, claimed that he was tortured during his pre-trial detainment. The torture, he claims, was a direct result of legal memos drafted by one of President Bush's legal advisors. And now the tortured wants to hold the person who instigated the torture process accountable. The question for the court: can a detainee who was tortured sue the person responsible for providing the opinion that torture is legal. The answer, at least so far, appears to be yes. More on the very interesting Padilla v. Yoo case can be found at the online magazine Slate.

Trying To Keep Up

It has been a busy few weeks for critics and defenders of the Bush Administration as numerous memos and reports related to the use of torture by U.S. officials have been released to the public. Trying to keep up with this flurry of information is daunting . . . but not impossible. Thanks to Foreign Policy Magazine's Passport Blog, you too can try to keep up with the latest news on the "war on terror" and torture. Take a look and remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

UPDATE - the Economist's Democracy in America Blog also has a torture news round-up. It seems as though torture is all anyone can talk about these days.