John Kerry and the Death Penalty
Should Sen. John F. Kerry be elected in November, the United States would have as president its strongest opponent of the death penalty in at least the last half-century, capital punishment opponents believe.
Kerry would be "the most anti-death penalty president elected in the modern era," according to David Elliot of The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
For more information go to:
Here is the 2004 Party Platform paragraph on crime:
Crime and violence. While terrorism poses an especially menacing threat to our nation, a strong America must remain vigilant against the scourge of homegrown crime as well. We are proud that Democrats led the fight to put more than 100,000 cops on the beat through the COPS program, and we will continue our steadfast support for COPS and community policing. To keep our streets safe for our families, we support tough punishment of violent crime and smart efforts to reintegrate former prisoners into our communities as productive citizens. We will crack down on the gang violence and drug crime that devastate so many communities, and we will increase drug treatment, including mandatory drug courts and mandatory drug testing for parolees and probationers, so fewer crimes are committed in the first place. We support the rights of victims to be respected, to be heard, and to be compensated. We will help break the cycle of domestic violence by punishing offenders and standing with victims. We will protect Americans' Second Amendment right to own firearms, and we will keep guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists by fighting gun crime, reauthorizing the assault weapons ban, and closing the gun show loophole, as President Bush proposed and failed to do.
The platform is here.
The Death Penalty is not actively opposed herein, but it's omission implies that Kerry opposes it.
**Thanks to David Jacobs who put this information together anecdotally and as I am prone to do, decided to put it up on the website.**
Posted by Angela at 12:25 PM
Comments
Angela,
Thanks for the shout out - Of course, I'm just trying to follow close behind the work that you all are doing here. It's awesome.
Alternet also published a good article about my friend JK and the Death Penalty, "Taking the Ultimate Penalty Off the Table"
With Clinton and Gore steering the party's policies, Democratic platforms explicitly and frequently endorsed capital punishment.But Clinton and Gore are no longer at the helm. And, as of tonight, the party will no longer be on record as supporting the death penalty. Asked about the removal of the pro-capital punishment language, U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the chair of the committee that drafted the document, explained that, "It's a reflection of John Kerry."
The rest is here: http://alternet.org/election04/19373/
Posted by: David Jacobs at October 1, 2004 03:34 PM
