Obama doesn’t accept that there are tensions between the security of the American people and the ideals of our democracy, so it’s not surprising that he would put the men behind the 9/11 attacks on trial in civilian courts and then guarantee the death penalty for the accused. But as the Los Angeles Times reports, there are no guarantees:
The paper reports on the various obstacles to a death sentence, not least of which is the venue, New York City, where there’s a good chance that one in 12 people will object to state sanctioned execution as a matter of principle. Of course the same could happen in Virginia or anywhere else the trials were held. In fact, the Bush administration failed to win stiff sentences for some detainees through military tribunals, which, if nothing else, was evidence that there were very real protections for the defendants built in to that system. But Obama has pointed to the bleachers in left field and called his shot.
