Is the Death Penalty Dead?
There has always been a huge problem with the death penalty as a form of criminal punishment in the United States. Even if one wasn’t morally opposed to the death penalty (me), pervasive problems with the use or lack of use of DNA evidence, racial disparity in death sentences, the competency of capital-case public defenders, and overzealous prosecutors should have caused even the most hardened pro-death penalty advocate to pause in their support.
There is an excellent article in slate.com (link) describing how a case soon to be heard at the Supreme Court has basically shut down the use of executions in this country (October was the first month in three years with no executions). I really encourage you to read the entire article regardless of your stance on the death penalty. As the article states in its closing: “One shouldn't have to be opposed to the death penalty, be soft on criminals, or be a liberal crybaby to insist that procedures that are hopelessly outdated and medically suspect be fixed.�
The use of the death penalty is abhorent to me. If it takes a re-examination of how we administer executions in this county to stop the death penalty great, I'll take it.