Death Penalty - I've always

Death Penalty - I've always opposed the death penalty. Some conservatives get very exercised with me about it.

It's not that some people don't richly deserve it, of course - I am a strong advocate of armed self-defense. And racial and social disparities can be dealt with, if the political will to do it is there.

No, my only real qualm about the death penalty is that judges, juries and defense attorneys are fallible - and prosecutors are frequently not only fallible, but also beholden to their political careers. Death cases equal votes - in some cases, it doesn't matter if you kill the wrong person.

While Tom Hackbarth, a Republican rep from Cedar, MN, introduces a death penalty bill every year in the House, it's a legitimate issue this year (although this probably not a serious candidate for passage, this close to the end of the session). The killing spree in Minnespolis and Long Prairie is the headline that's driving a lot of discussion. But behind the scenes, a 1998 federal case against Richard Oslund, who killed an armored car driver in a 1998 robbery in Bloomington, may be what drags Minnesota into the world of death penalty politics.

Here's the part that bothers me:

Observers believe this case was carefully selected as a test because Oslund is not a racial minority and may not have the unstable mental health history common to many death row inmates. U.S. Attorney Thomas Heffelfinger declined to comment on the case.

"It was hand-picked to be an unsympathetic defendant," Frey [Barbara Frey, director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota] said.

So it's not entirely, or even primarily, the merits of the case - it's heinousness or callousness or, for lack of a better term, deathworthiness - that is driving the feds in prosecuting Oslund; it's the desire for a social slam dunk.

The death penalty isn't supposed to be capricious; doesn't cherry-picking count as a form of caprice?

Again, I doubt there's any way to pass such a divisive bill this session. But proponents of the death penalty will probably benefit from the same sense that has brought tax cuts, concealed carry reform and a 24 hour waiting period on abortions to Minnesota this session.

Posted by Mitch at May 9, 2003 07:03 AM