‘There is no political message here’: Oh, yes there is. The federal jury’s dramatic decision in Boston yesterday to sentence Gary Lee Sampson to death has plenty of subtle and not-so-subtle political messages imbedded in it, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan’s assertions to the contrary. Here are two messages that jump immediately to mind: A.) The federal government obviously is trying to ‘nationalize’ the death penalty and B.) The sentence is yet one more piece of evidence confirming that the stereotyped hyper-liberal Massachusetts population really isn’t as hyper-liberal as many pundits have long proclaimed. The nine women and three men took a mere 11 hours to render the unanimous verdict. Dems take note. ...

Having recently switched my position on the death penalty issue (I’m now against it), I’m not quite sure what to make of the federal jury’s decision, on a more personal level. The reason why I now oppose the death penalty is because I’ve lost faith in the ability of the criminal justice system to sort out the guilty from the innocent in these and other cases. The dramatic events in Illinois -- where a slew of death-row inmates were found to be innocent, as a result of investigations by lowly journalism students doing the job judges, prosecutors, cops and the media should have performed -- confirms this. But there is NO doubt Sampson brutally killed those poor people. ... So in an odd sense, I feel a tinge of, well, pride and respect for the way the jury handled the Sampson case.  ¶ 8:23 AM