On the substance, if you are going to have a death penalty for murder I'd kind of agree this is comparably heinous. I mean
it's in the ball park.
Since he's for the death penalty in general this isn't too much of a pander really.
Meanwhile the big, big pander and hypocrisy remains drug laws.
They all did 'em.
They all support keeping everyone else who did 'em in jail. And mainly that's black people! Surprise, surprise, surprise.

So if we can't even get politicians to be sane and fair and smart about that why expect any better on more serious crimes?

I'd say all in all you don't see huge differences between them all, on the pander meter.

I don't really understand how locking some dude in a stifling cell 23 hours a day, telling him the day he's going to die, postponing it several times, then taking away his shoes, strapping him to a table, leaving him there sometimes for hours before hitting him with a drug overdose, then poisoning him twice fails to violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. If I did that to some asshole on my own personal initiative, the prosecution would wax eloquently about my inhuman cruelty.

But...

I understand this is a minority opinion. If I'd was a straight issue voter and backed the candidate who most closely mirrored my personal political beliefs, I'd have backed Kucinich.

President Obama's going to appoint Supremes who will tend to roll back Capital Sentences, because he's going to appoint Supremes who have strong records on civil rights.

That's good enough for me.

C'mon, PC, did you really think that he wouldn't play the game like they all have to? Or beyond that, did you really think that those of us who supported Obama vs. Clinton were so naive that we truly believed we'd always agree with him on everything?

Oh, wait, he does.

The Eighth Amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment applies the Bill of Rights to the states, not just the federal government. That's where the Supreme Court gets off on making this decision.

Part of deciding what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment rests on whether the crime fits the punishment. Throwing someone in prison for 20 years for jaywalking is excessive and severe punishment for a minor crime and would not hold up to judicial review. Executing someone for doing anything other than taking a human life is punishment that is too severe for the crime, and is a rule already established in Coker v. Georgia. Someday the court will likely decide that execution for murder is too severe.

(A) Much as we feel sorry for child victims, they make terrible witnesses. Way to high a chance of a false conviction.

(B) If a child rapist is worried about getting executed for rape, what's to stop him from killing the child (the only witness)? Same penalty either way.

(C) Should we execute 20 year olds bonking 17 year olds? Should we execute Roman Polanski?

I wrote about this topic on my own blog and for Talking Points Memo Cafe today.

Wenatchee cases? What happened with that?

yes, child rapists deserve to die in my opinion.

if they are truly guilty, they should be crucified with with a rusty hammer or tossed in a bath tub with a toaster.

but it is not the state's job to seek revenge or to give us a false sense of security.

the majority of these cases are not the ones that grab the headlines. most happen inside families and "communities" and death penalty will make it less likely for people to testify. in other words, there will be a bigger increase. stats always show that tough on crime laws and ill advised legislatures actually have the reverse effect.

remember the drug war?

it will not have the desired effect in reducing these barbaric acts which should be society's role. im sure a progressive chicago liberal like senator obama knows this, but he feels he has to get elected. it will be important what happens once he is in office. what he says now to election day is not really all that important in my HO.

Moreover, what impact would the potential for a death sentence have on the reporting of the crime? Often these things are done by members of the family or family friends. Getting raped is awful enough for a kid—I can't imagine how hard it would be to compound the fallout from the rape with the guilt the kid might feel from having a role in the execution of a step-father or uncle or whatever. This also is to say nothing of how *long* death penalty cases drag on with appeal after appeal after appeal. It would potentially end up making a rape the common thread throughout somebody's entire childhood (the average time, I think, from conviction to execution is 8 years).