If there is one country on this Earth that treasures local government, it is the United States of America.
That’s why each county or equivalent elects its own prosecutor who makes its own policy choices that can differ from others in the same state, including on the death penalty. And contrary to the usual abolitionist propaganda, there is no constitutional issue over that. The Constitution indeed sanctifies such local decision-making with the Vicinage Clause.
So, states are not required to have a statewide prosecution system, but they are also not prohibited to do so, and it has been proposed to transfer the prosecution of capital crimes to a statewide authority to provide a uniform enforcement of the death penalty.
But it cannot be fair to give such a pocket veto on this matter to a single individual or group. That would indeed be worse, since there would be only one relevant authority in each state, while among the many local prosecutors there will always be some ready to apply the death penalty when warranted.
The appropriate process to ensure both collegiality and a balance between local and statewide government would be to allow the attorney general to take over the case only when the local prosecutor does not seek the death penalty or charge a crime as capital one month after being requested to do so by the attorney general. And if the local prosecutor drop the death penalty-request or the capital charge, even as part of a plea agreement, that should allow the attorney general to take over the case to overrule such decision within one month (or less if the trial is ongoing).
It would be mistaken to regard this proposed process as an unfair disadvantage to the defendant. Instead, that would be the counterpart to two rules existing only in capital cases and that are greatly advantageous to the defense: (1) The prohibition of mandatory death sentences; and (2) The prohibition on the court to impose the death penalty when the prosecution does not request it.
Besides the prosecution method, the sentencing method has also its importance:
http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...l=1#post132530
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