John Kerry and Capital Punishment

This November, there will be one little element missing from the Democrats’ platform, which has been there ever since 1988. What is missing, is a pro-capital punishment position. In respect to John Kerry’s steady opposition on the issue, the party will not be officially supporting the death penalty this election year.

In 1988, the Democratic presidential nominee, former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, went on record as a critic of capital punishment. This allowed his opposition, George Herbert Walker Bush, to exploit the issue. Since Dukakis’ defeat, the Democratic Party has supported the death penalty – Bill Clinton even took time off in his 1992 campaign to travel back to Arkansas, where he was then Governor, to oversee the execution of a mentally-retarded inmate.

While Clinton and Al Gore probably understood the ineffectiveness of capital punishment, they also realized that it could be used as a political tool – and one less area in which the Democrats would appear ‘soft on crime,’ should they support it.

Yet, in a somewhat pleasant move, Kerry has remained steadfast in his opposition. Indeed, he receives high marks from death penalty critics. During the primary season, only Kerry and Congressman Dennis Kucinich received perfect scores from the Students Against the Death Penalty project of the ACLU.

Kerry has not wavered on the death penalty, opposing it under all circumstances, until recently when he made an exception after the attacks on September 11th, 2001, when he said he would consider the death penalty – in limited cases – for foreign terrorists. He strongly opposes executing juveniles and argues for greater DNA testing for inmates on death row. John Kerry co-sponsored both the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 and the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2003.

John Kerry when speaking about his position, has said, “I know something about killing. I don’t like killing. That’s just a personal belief I have,” referencing his service during Vietnam.

What will be the political implications of Kerry standing by his position? Incumbent George W. Bush has yet to use it for political advantage, but it’s expected that he will at some point. The majority of Americans support the death penalty, in some shape or instance, although its popularity has been slipping since the late-eighties.

Another piece that may be invaluable in predicting how this will affect the election, is to look at the states where capital punishment is barred. That number includes six swing states, any number of which could decide the election.

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