Candidates on the Issues ~ Death Penalty

[maddezmom]

Candidates on the Issues: Death Penalty

By The Associated Press


The Associated Press chooses an issue three times a week and asks the presidential candidates a question about it. Today's question and responses:

DEATH PENALTY: Do you support the death penalty?

Democrats:

Carol Moseley Braun: "In the Illinois General Assembly in 1984 I proposed a death penalty moratorium, 15 years before one was enacted. The death penalty is racist in its implementation, and is too often a revenge response. As Dr. (Martin Luther) King once said, 'an eye for an eye will simply leave us all blind.' Over 50 percent of inmates facing the death penalty are African-American or Hispanic, despite the fact that these minorities together make up only a quarter of our entire population. As a United States senator, I fought to allow statistical data on race to be heard at death penalty appeals. As president, I will work to establish a moratorium on the federal death penalty."

Wesley Clark: "I believe the death penalty should be available for the most heinous crimes. At the same time, I am concerned about reports of mistakes on death row, and errors and unfairness in our criminal justice system. The death penalty is too often applied in a discriminatory and uneven way. If we are to carry out the ultimate penalty, it must be with the ultimate safeguards."

Howard Dean: "I believe the death penalty should be available for extreme and heinous crimes, such as terrorism or the killing of police officers or young children. But it must be carried out with scrupulous fairness."
~snip~

all candidates listed: http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/ON_THE_ISSUES_0113?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[LWolf]

1. So...3 candidates opposed:

Kucinich, Braun, and Sharpton.

And Braun is no longer a candidate, which narrows it down to Dennis and Sharpton.

6 candidates approve....equivocally.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. As a long-time anti-DP activist...

I don't see much hope for too many "anti" politicans anywhere in the near future. Capital punishment is ingrained in the US psyche for now, and it's not an issue many can run on. The best we can usually hope for is some mild statement that it doesn't work very well, so we should reform it.

Not really acceptable, but better than blood and guts kill 'em all candidates.