Reply #136: But that would never happen

[kang]

given Dean's socio-economic background and his education. Only lower-income people who lack quality legal representation get wrongly convicted for murder.

For the record, I'm on the fence about the death penalty in theory, but I think most would agree that its current form is messed up and unfair. I'm not sure I understand what's so bad about LWOP (life w/out any chance of parole). Kerry may be right, rotting in a supermax is probably worse than execution.

What I find a bit intellectually dishonest (or perhaps he didn't think of this) about Gov. Dean's position on the death penalty is that high profile cases are what usually lead to wrongful convictions. The murder of children, multiple homicides, rape/murders, and killing of law enforcement officers are all cases where enormous public pressure is put on the prosecutors and police to catch and punish "somebody" so everybody's vengeance can be satisfied and the public can go on feeling safe.

So it would seem he's allowing for the cases where the most mistakes are made. Unless some new reforms are made (IL is implementing a videotape requirement for all interrogations of potential capital cases) which guarantee due process rights of the accused, innocent people will continue to end up on death row.

In my opinion, the death penalty is a losing argument for Democrats since it's one of the few issues where people often lose their ability for rational thought. However, Dean can hold his current position and always reserve the right to be wrong and change his mind later. All he is doing is avoiding the "soft on crime" attack by the GOP.