Well. Here's an interesting piece not being mentioned too much in the other newspapers: The Supremes Court, popular motown group and highest court in the land, has extended the eigth amendment's cruel and unusual punishment restrictions to include executing the mentally handicapped. Read all about it here in the Christian Science Monitor. What amazes me about this is that it realy took any debate at all...I mean, c'mon people - it's meant to be a deterrent. You can't deter those who will not learn of the past too clearly, let alone heed it or remember it. My parents have been working with the handicapped for years, and I can assure you that in cases of mental retardation, there is far less awareness of one's own culpability. Yes, it will lead to a flood of false appeals. Good! We DESIGNED THE DAMNED SYSTEM TO MAKE IT DIFFICULT! It isn't SUPPOSED to be easy! We do not want to have the government, or any other person or organization, to streamline and make comfortable the process of killing a person. Save that sort of efficiency for those regimes known for it.