On Monday, a Brooklyn jury will deliberate on life or death for a convicted crack dealer and killer-- and on John Ashcroft:

There is no seat for John Ashcroft in the Brooklyn courtroom where Emile Dixon, a convicted killer and crack dealer, is fighting for his life. But as the jurors heard arguments last week about whether to impose capital punishment, Mr. Ashcroft, the United States attorney general, was mentioned so often that he might as well have pulled up a chair.

"This death penalty prosecution was ordered by John Ashcroft," Richard W. Levitt, one of Mr. Dixon's lawyers, said in his summation on Friday. "You don't have to listen to John Ashcroft."

Jack Smith, one of the federal prosecutors pressing for execution, mentioned Mr. Ashcroft, too. He told jurors that he had to answer Mr. Levitt. "He's hoping one of you doesn't like John Ashcroft," Mr. Smith said, adding, "Politics have no place here. None."

Here's hoping one juror doesn't like John Ashcroft. For more on how Ashcroft has been pandering the death penalty--even over the objections of his prosecutors--go here and here and here and here.