For the second time in one week, Law Professor Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, writes about the Death Penalty on his MSNBC weblog. We're thrilled that Glenn is giving the issue so much attention. His column today includes a long letter from us, in response to his review of Scott Turow's new book, Ultimate Punishment, in his Sept. 25 column.

Of course, we don't have the same views as Glenn on all aspects of the death penalty. For example, while he doesn't say so, we suspect Glenn supports the death penalty in theory, provided it could be fairly adminstered--while we oppose it in all cases. But we welcome his concern for the wrongfully convicted in prisons (See the 9/25 column) and for his take today on who should be locked up and who not--and why the system isn't working the way it should. Glenn says:

My own sense is that we lock up too many people, and that we lock up some of them for too long, and some of them for not long enough. That’s partly because the system is so overburdened that there are too many plea bargains, and too many cases in which charges are brought for leverage. I’d like to see the criminal justice system focus on serious crimes — violent crimes, robbery, etc. — and spend far less on victimless crimes, simple drug possession, etc. Then it would have the resources to do a good job on the cases that are really important, and we could keep violent criminals in jail for a long time.

Glenn also says people don't trust the criminal justice system. They have a hard time believing that "life without parole" really means the inmate can't be released before his death. He's probably right that those opposed to the death penalty have to work harder to make people understand this.

But we still give a lot of blame to the politicans. As we wrote Glenn,