Convictions: Slate's blog on legal issues

And speaking of less-than-unitary Executives ...

What do you all make of Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s reported comments in London last week that the 9/11 plotters the Pentagon will be trying at Guantanamo Bay should not be executed even if they’re convicted? These are the same terrorists who’ve been charged with capital crimes. Our friend Doug Berman is not amused. He finds Mukasey’s rhetoric particularly offensive in that the AG compared the terrorists to masochists and the American prosecutors to sadists.

“Because many of them want to be martyrs, and it's kind of like the conversation … between the sadist and the masochist. ...  The masochist says hit me and the sadist says no, so I am kind of hoping they don't get it.”

I am hesitant to read too, too much into Mukasey’s comments as I suspect he was just trying to be clever and perhaps this is what passes for a charm offensive when Bush administration officials visit Europe these days. I know Doug disagrees with me. And it certainly is less than smart for the AG to undermine the capital prosecution at Gitmo in the eyes of the world. Thoughts?