Anyone need another reason to oppose the death penalty? Yesterday, Salon published a devastating article about how the death penalty effects jury selection, skewing juries toward the prosecution’s side. The way it works is simple — prosecutors can legally dismiss any potential juror who is not in favor of the death penalty if the death is a potential sentence in the case. So they ask for the death penalty in as many cases as they can, and they filter out everyone who’s not a wholehearted death penalty supporter. Unfortunately for the defendants, that also enables the prosecution to get rid of lots of people who believe in things like reasonable doubt and the presumption of innocence. What a travesty.