At least wait for the last year of your second term, when you can play to history, not to the voters. Yes, the death penalty has been rendered morally problematic by disclosures of prosecutorial misconduct and state indifference to the right of indigent defendants to a fair trial, and by DNA testing that has established the innocence of prisoners on death row. But 80 percent of the American people support the death penalty, and they will resent the intimation that they are lacking in decency. They will throw the names of serial killers, like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, back at you. These monsters are the ones lacking in morality, not us, most Americans will still say, even after you put before them what we have recently learned about the death penalty's administration.
People resent the implied moral superiority of death-penalty opponents.
The only thing worse than a politician who is more corrupt than regular citizens is one who is insufferably better. In supporting the death penalty we act according to the principle that it is better for a few innocent men die than for us to allow many guilty men to escape the punishment of an eye for an eye. Respect the settled opinion of the people and don't join this quixotic crusade. There are steps you can take short of political immolation that will align you on the side of reform, like providing federal funds, if necessary, to subsidize lawyers defending indigent clients on trial for murder. Return to the first page and make your Executive Decision .