News reports out of Iran tell of yet another round of executions: four men and one woman, executed inside the notorious Evin Prison.

This brings the number of Iran’s executions in 2008 to a record high–at least 63 people were reportedly executed in August alone, while 25 were hanged in Tehran on July 25. Iran has decided not to make such events public anymore (as I have discussed in the past) to prevent embarrassment to the regime when the resulting images go around the world. Yet even as these images are shown, right-thinking commentators will jump at the outrage by asking, “How is this so different from Texas?”

Fair question. This is not an attempt to trigger a discussion about the death penalty, its merits and demerits, its justice or injustice. The simple answer is: it is not Texas because in Texas, as in the other states of the Union where the death penalty is in the law-books, there are other things that accompany it. These are: the right to counsel for the accused; habeas corpus; the presumption of innocence; the right to a fair trial; the notion that guilt must be proven beyond reasonable doubt. There are stringent rules of evidence. There is a need for witnesses. There is a right of appeal. And there are rights for the convicts, even as they go to their death, that their punishment not be “cruel and unusual.”

In Iran, there is no guarantee of a fair trial. The reliance on circumstantial evidence for conviction is overwhelming. The right to counsel is not guaranteed to suspects. There is no habeas corpus. Torture is rife. The testimony of women is half the value of that of men. Judges are tools of the regime. Crimes punishable by death include blasphemy and homosexuality. Political dissidents are as prone to execution as common criminals. Rights of appeal are not applied. Punishments are cruel and unusual (in the sense of esoteric). In practice, such punishments are quite common.

Fair trial? Not a chance. Is it like Texas? Iranian convicts might wish it were the case…