I worked with death row inmates for many years and was an activist in this area. The state I worked in had one of the highest execution rates and used the electric chair.  It is torture, no way around that.  Not to mention that the death penalty fails as a deterrent; costs more than incarceration; is implemented in a racist and classist manner; and carries a risk of error which, of course, cannot be reversed once the punishment is enacted.

I'd love to see the Democrats take up a position opposing capital punishment.  Now that DNA technology has highlighted the risk of error and certain methods are getting more attention for their cruelty, perhaps we are not too far away from a turning point in the Democratic Party on this crucial human rights problem. Continuing to use the death penalty damages our credibility with other countries when promoting human rights.

Thank you for raising this issue.  I have recommended your diary.

Thank you very very much for your recommendation. It would be a good thing if we measured our value as a nation at least in part by how we treated the most despised of our population.  We fail so miserably in that; particularly in our use of the DP, but also with other criminal justice issues, and I think it spills over into the whole discussion of torture which too many Americans are sort of just numbed about.

Changed his mind while in office.

included not just crimes of violence, but also such trivial offenses as growing a field of hemp.

I've always been against the death penalty, and it's disappointing that more of our politicians don't stand up and fight it. It's a political liability, of course.

I am personally for the death penalty. I believe the victim's family has the right to ask for the death penalty.

However, it is not a voting issue for me. I am perfectly fine voting for anyone who is opposed to DP because I don't feel very strongly about my opinion as mistakes can happen.

But my personal moral code has no problem killing a monster. A politician who is pro Death Penalty but is slower to go to war is responsible for less deaths than a politician who is anti Death Penalty but will go to war a little more easily and be responsible for a lot of collateral damage.

There is no good reason for the death penalty.

If we spent as much time attacking the roots of violent crime, rather than worrying about killing them once the act has been done, we'd be much better off as a society.

I don't deny, either, that evil exists, but why do we need to become them in how we punish. If you heard of a serial killer who was paralyzing his victims so they could not scream and then causing them an agonizing death, after putting them in a small cell for a long time with the constant fear of death, what would you say about that person?  In examining the death penalty, that person is us.