The pope similarly appealed to other governors, including Delaware's Thomas Carper. But when Mr. Ashcroft ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate against Mr. Carnahan last year, Judge Ronnie White became the target. He lost his Senate seat anyway. But the poisonous political tactic lingers. The implication that willingness or hesitation to impose the ultimate penalty is a sign of moral rectitude or craven liberalism debases one of the most profound decisions in civilized society.
Some families seek redress with the death penalty after one of their own is murdered.
Others find it within themselves to ask for mercy for a killer. Delaware reinstated the death penalty in 1976, after four years in which the U.S. Supreme Court reconsidered the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, particularly how sentences were irregularly applied. Yet that unease over the effectiveness and fairness of capital punishment has never evaporated. Of the 39 states with the death penalty, Illinois last year ordered a moratorium on executions because of evidence of inequities. The U.S. Justice Department has undertaken a review of the federal death penalty system.