If a single phrase were used to describe the current state of capital punishment in the U.S., that phrase would be “striking contrast.” Several states and the federal government rush to speed up the time between sentence and execution, while other states impose moratoriums and undertake serious studies of their capital punishment systems. What explains this “striking contrast?” Do capital punishment systems work in some jurisdictions but not others? How do these and other trends impact state courts?
JUST a few years ago, it was possible to think that capital punishment was-pardon the pun-a dead issue in American politics. So completely had the pro-execution side triumphed, so undebated was the subject in mainstream politics, that when George W. Bush and other Republicans referred to "the death penalty," they were usually talking about the estate tax. (That's a "death penalty" Republicans oppose.) But all of a sudden, the politics of the issue appear to have changed-and not in Bush's favor.
It is not surprising that capital punishment--which, along with abortion, is one of the most powerful issues at the boundary between religion and politics--came up at the second presidential debate in Winston-Salem, N.C. George W. Bush strongly endorsed the death penalty, and Al Gore, who mildly supports capital punishment, said nothing to disagree with him. All that was expected. But the actual exchange was strange at many levels.
The co-perpetrator of the worst terrorist attack in American history; a woman convicted of pick-axing two sleeping people to death; a cold-blooded mail bomber on trial for two murders and two maimings: These are some of the people who have convinced sympathetic listeners that they ought to escape the maximum legal punishment for their crimes. The death penalty is unequivocally constitutional. It is supported by a crushing majority of the American people................
