ABSTRACT
Now that there is a book of academic writing available about the Simpsons (The D 'oh of Homer\ perhaps a reference to a scene from that show might have the proper academic cachet. When Sideshow Bob is caught redhanded attempting to kill his brother, Police Chief Wiggams wheels the gurney up to Bob and prepares to strap him in. Bob asks, "Isn't it customary to have a trial first?" and Wiggams replies, "Oh, a wise guy, eh?" As we read media accounts of the jurisdictional jockeying over who would get to impose a death sentence on accused D.C. area snipers John Mohammad and Lee Malvo before they were brought to trial, or about the Illinois clemency hearings in which the cries for execution drowned out discussion of serious flaws with the administration of the death penalty, we might ask whether Chief Wiggams' attitude toward procedural protections is confined to the cartoons.
