The fate of accused sniper suspect John Muhammad is now in the hands of the jury. His lawyers argued reasonable doubt today, but given the amount of circumstantial evidence against him, and the Judge's ruling that the terrorism charge supports the death penalty regardless of whether the state proved Muhammad pulled the trigger, the outcome of the guilt-innocence phase of the trial is fairly predictable. If a guilty verdict comes in, the case will move to the sentencing trial, in which the prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Muhammad.

This new report, Broken Justice: The Death Penalty in Virginia on the unfairness of the Virginia death penalty system, and the need for sweeping reforms, should give everyone great pause.

According to the study, prosecutorial misconduct and incompetent counsel, combined with arbitrary restrictions on presenting evidence and fixing trial mistakes, have created a flawed system that can convict innocent people and deprive others of a fair hearing.

"In Virginia, whether or not you are sentenced to death has little to do with the crime, and everything to do with your race, where you live, and who prosecutes your case," said John Whitehead, Executive Director of the Rutherford Institute. "This is in direct contradiction to America’s fundamental faith in ‘blind’ justice."

It troubles us that Attorney General John Ashcroft hand-picked Virginia over Maryland and other jurisdictions as the venue for the first trial for Muhammad and Malvo. He picked Virginia because a jury in that state was most likely to sentence the pair to death, in complete disregard of the unfairness of the death penalty system in the state. As we opined here almost exactly one year ago,

Justice occurs when we provide the accused with a fair trial, competent counsel and strict adherence to their consitutional rights. Injustice occurs when we allow passion and prejudice to override the guarantees of fairness our system provides to even the worst offender among us.

John Ashcroft is not running the Department of Justice but a Department of Injustice.