Indeed, Gov. George Ryan of Illinois made other governors, including Gray Davis, squirm when he declared a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois after a Northwestern University investigation found that 13 men on death row in Illinois were wrongfully convicted. Since then, another look at the death penalty has been ordered in Nebraska, Indiana and Maryland. What is so depressing about the reaction to the idea of a moratorium is that no one is talking about abolishing the death penalty capital-punishment fans will still get their executions but about making sure that only the guilty are executed. That ought to be a no-brainer. But when the New York Times asked Al Gore the other day how many executions of the innocent he would accept to keep the death penalty, he was stumped for the only correct answer zero and hemmed and hawed as if someone had asked him to name his favorite earth tone.
Conservatives ought to be encouraging a moratorium, since it's about protecting innocent life.
But they aren't. They're guilty of exactly what murderers are guilty of indifference to the death of an innocent. JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.