Opinion: The problem with Hillary Clinton's stance on the death penalty
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Sanders staked out the opposite turf from Clinton, arguing that the death penalty is too prone to error to be trusted but also said more broadly that “of course there are barbaric acts out there. But in a world of so much violence and killing, I just don’t believe that government itself should be part of the killing.”
To her credit, Clinton has said she “would breathe a sigh of relief” if the Supreme Court were to ban the practice. But there are two underlying problems with her position as staked out Thursday night. First is the implication that effective counsel is all it takes to guarantee a fair trial, when many of the death penalty exonerations we’ve seen in recent years have hinged on prosecutorial or investigative misconduct (including hiding potentially exculpatory evidence from the defense) and lying witnesses. Even the best defense lawyers will have trouble overcoming such practices.
Second is Clinton’s suggestion that somehow the federal system has got it right on how to get a clean conviction and a method of execution that is not unconstitutionally cruel and unusual. She cited the case of McVeigh, whose atrocious act of anti-government terrorism killed 168 people, including children at a day-care center, in the federal Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. That was a heinous act of terrorism, and she called his execution “appropriate.”
But it’s only appropriate if you view vengeance as the purview of the state. McVeigh was irredeemable and caused unimaginable pain and loss, but that doesn’t mean it was just for the government to kill him in return. If killing is wrong, then it’s inconsistent to vest that power in the state. That’s the moral argument against the death penalty. The pragmatic one — expensive, indiscriminate, prone to manipulation — doesn’t inherently give the federal system a pass. In an adversarial judicial system, the goal is to win as much as it is to reach truth and justice.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-clinton-sanders-presidential-debate-death-penalty-20160205-story.html
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Simply put, Hillary does NOT represent me.
There are so many issues which she is basically a conservative on, I'm fed up with this merging of the 2 parties. I would love for one of her supporters to chime in here and tell us all how her position on the death penalty is any different than W's.
