Lawyers are now grilling prospective jurors in the murder trial of a Crawford County man about how they feel about capital punishment, but the basic question is being studiously avoided: Why have the state put anyone to death? Doing away with the whole institution would avoid any risk of the state's making a fatal mistake and becoming an accessory to homicide. Then all of us, especially judges, could avoid nettlesome moral, constitutional and even pharmacological questions, and sleep better o' night.
Get rid of capital punishment and, while many questions about it would remain and have to be adjudicated year after year, the basic problem with it would be gone. Because it would be. Yes, some would demand that justice, so often invoked in these cases but so seldom served, still demands a blood sacrifice. But why should it, especially if it's far more trouble than it's worth? And choosing death over life is never worth it. Simpler is better--far better than being haunted by such questions.
Editorial on 04/08/2016