The current federal limit of one year to bring a habeas, also implemented under Clinton as part of AEDPA, is far too short, particularly for those with innocence claims based on DNA evidence not available at trial. Under the fast-track rules, the time period would be limited to six months. Federal judges were tasked with deciding if states qualified for the fast-track, and in all cases the answer was no.

In California, it can take 10 years to appoint appellate or habeas counsel for inmates sentenced to death. (70% of those sentenced to death are minorities.)

Congress, in 2005, changed the rule to allow the Attorney General instead of judges to make the decision, with a final review by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Former AG Michael Mukasey submitted rules to implement the change, but they never took effect.

[In] submitting the rules for public comment, he left out their most important provision - that they would allow each state, rather than federal courts, to decide whether its own procedures for choosing and paying defense lawyers were adequate.

Thus, the decision is still up to the Obama DOJ.

Last month, without fanfare, the Justice Department withdrew Mukasey's rules and said it would submit its own plan for Attorney General Eric Holder to evaluate the state's standards. It did not announce a timetable.

Here's an interesting statistic:

Federal courts overturn about two-thirds of the California death sentences they consider, compared with the state Supreme Court's reversal rate of less than 10 percent.

According to the Innocence Project, 17 people sentenced to death have later been proven innocent by DNA testing. (Including non-death sentences, DNA testing has exonerated 265 inmates.) In 2010, there were 29 DNA exonerations. This is hardly the time to speed up executions.

There were 46 executions in 2010. Here's Barry Scheck last week on MSNBC on falling support for the death penalty.

Also check out the Death Penalty Information Center's 2010 report on the death penalty.