Both Sides Now

I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…

The President of the United States is usually a man of many talents. One talent I didn’t hope to see in the current guy is the ability to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

Joe Biden made a campaign promise to end the federal death penalty.

Today his administration filed a brief with the United States Supreme Court urging it to continue the death penalty at least until the feds can stick a needle in the Boston marathon bomber. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence had been overturned, but Biden says it would be nice to flip it back.

Tsarnaev’s lawyer argues Biden should keep his promise and allow Tsarnaev to spend the rest of his life in prison. Guess he’d rather be in Colorado.

There is no doubt that if anyone deserves the death penalty, this one does. But the whole point of campaigning to abolish the death penalty is to hold that no one does.

You can’t credibly say in one breath that no one should be put to death by the government, and in the next say, well, except this man, who is really, really bad.

Like the really bad man’s lawyer, I’d like to see Biden keep his promise.

I’d like to see a President with the talent to speak out of the front of his mouth. Always and ever.