States might be able to qualify even if they had not provided lawyer services "sufficient to enable federal court litigation to proceed fairly within the expedited time period," the group said in a letter to the Justice Department this month.
Critics also say there is a major conflict of interest for the nation's top law enforcement officer to judge the qualifications of lawyers defending people whom government officials are seeking to put to death.
Others have doubts about giving Gonzales in particular more power. His judgment has been challenged over his handling of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year, among other matters.
Death penalty foes also say his record on the issue inspires no confidence that the rules will be administered fairly. As legal advisor to then-Texas Gov. George Bush in the 1990s, he gave what many saw as cursory treatment of clemency petitions of capital defendants whom the state subsequently put to death.
"It is almost a cruel joke for Congress to have said, 'What we would like to do is improve the way states handle these' . . . and then put it in the hands of, all people, the attorney general," said Lawrence Fox, a Philadelphia lawyer who teaches legal ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. "It really is quite extraordinary. He is the chief prosecutor of the United States. He couldn't possibly be unbiased."
Fox said he would have problems with any attorney general wielding that power.
Under the proposed rules, each state, through its attorney general, would have to apply to the Justice Department to be included in the program.
Besides Arizona, where 114 prisoners are on death row, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and other states have shown interest in the new procedures.
It's unclear whether California would apply. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is an avowed opponent of the death penalty, but many staff attorneys support the rule, and Brown has said he will not allow his personal feelings to affect his judgment about enforcing the law.
rick.schmitt@latimes.com
Times staff writer Henry Weinstein in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
