AlterNet: The Supreme Court's Death Penalty Paradox

For some ungodly reason, American society regularly produces human beings who commit monstrous crimes, the kind of crimes that leave most of us comfortable with idea of execution in individual cases. Yet when we look at the death penalty en masse -- that is, when we assess the DNA-validated statistical certainty of erroneous conviction (not to mention the issues of class and racial bias) -- many of the same people who would otherwise have been moved to support the death penalty, feel compelled to condemn the whole system.

Argues that four justices have moved to firmly anti-Death penalty, at least as it can be currently tried. That will be interesting in light of their agreement to hear a Maryland case.

Washington Post -- High Court to Review Md. Death Penalty Case