Tonight, I have all the usual first-world problems. I have too much work and not enough time to do it. I hate shoveling the snow out of my driveway. I wish I were 20 years younger and 10 pounds lighter… However, I want to address a more serious issue tonight. But first a reminder from our sponsors:
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Let me emphasize at the outset that I think that our candidates on their worst days are 100 times better than anyone in the in the Republican clown car. Here in NJ we have endured two terms of governor Bully. I am also enough of a yellow dog Democrat that I will support the Democratic candidate in November. However, an issue came up the the debate Thursday night that I feel strongly about, and that is the death penalty. In NJ, we abolished the death penalty in 2007 by legislative action. The bill was passed by a Democratic legislature and signed into law by then-governor Corzine. For those who think that the death penalty is a deterrent to violent crime, it is interesting to note that NJ is one of the safest states in the US.
102 countries world-wide have banned the death penalty, and another 50 have a moratorium that has lasted more than 10 years. In 2014, only four countries—China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq--executed more people than the US did. Do we really want to act like these countries? They are not exactly bastions of human rights.
Americans on the right and the left are realizing that our justice system is deeply flawed. Since 1992, the Innocence Project has used DNA evidence to exonerate over 300 people, including 20 who spent time on death row. Can we run the risk of executing an innocent man or woman?
Some Americans, including HRC, have argued that the death penalty should only be used for the most heinous crimes. The example that is often used is Timothy McVeigh, a home-grown terrorist who blew up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city in 1995. Many of the victims were children at a day-care center in the building. McVeigh was executed in 2001. However, his execution did not bring any of those little children back to life. Would our world be any different today of he had been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole?
In addition, states that still allow executions have faced a shorts of the drugs that are used for lethal injection. A number of botched executions have led to horrible pain and suffering and have lasted any where from 20 minutes to an hour.
And, of course, executions have been politicized. I will never forget W mocking Karla Faye Tucker on a talk show and Bill Clinton rushing home from the campaign trail to allow the execution of Ricky Ray Rector. Our criminal justice system needs serious reform, and one important change should be the abolition of the death penalty. Just my two cents.
The floor is open. What’s on your mind?
