Obama, McCain Want to Widen Death Penalty

Jonathan Adams

Obama, McCain Want to Widen Death Penalty

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that struck down a Louisiana law that allows capital punishment for people convicted of raping children under 12, saying it violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

This is another nail in the coffin, as SCOTUS blog points out, for the death penalty:

That does not mean, however, that the Court will routinely stop executions. Since its ruling in Baze, it has repeatedly declined to step in to block a scheduled execution. And even Justice Stevens has not dissented from those orders. But there is a definite trend line: following nullification of the death penalty for the rape of an adult woman (Coker v. Georgia, 1977, for murder by a mentally impaired individual (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002), and murder by a minor (Roper v. Simmons, 2005), the options for using the death penalty continue to narrow.

In a time where the Supreme Court seems to be moving towards killing the death penalty, the presidential candidates are set to not only preserving the it, but extending to to include crimes other than murder. John McCain called the ruling "an assault on law enforcement's efforts to punish these heinous felons for the most despicable crime." Barack Obama said that they thought the rape of a child was egregious enough of a crime for the death penalty to be applied and he said it was wrong to take away states' rights to apply it for crimes other than murder.

Ralph Nader was criticized for the words he used in chiding Barack Obama's response to the issues of racial justice, but I have to agree partly with Nader on this one. We know that when all factors are held constant, Black people are still more likely to be put to death. Obama missed an opportunity here.

Posted at 9:17 AM, Jun 26, 2008 in Elections | Permalink | View Comments