Daniels and death penalty. Given his usual (and much vaunted) decisiveness, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette finds Governor Daniels ambivalence about the death penalty to be odd and something of a cop out.
“I honestly would say on different days I can feel differently about that, but that’s because this is a values issue – one that every citizen has to search his or her own heart on,†Daniels said. “And the people of Indiana very clearly believe that at least in the worst of cases, the option of the penalty is appropriate, and I agree.â€
That’s all well and good for the ordinary Hoosier, says the Journal Gazette, but Daniels is the only one other than a judge who can do something about the death penalty. (To quote the Spiderman cliche, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”)
If all goes according to schedule, Daniels will preside over 7 executions this year — more by any non-Southern governor since Missouri’s 9 in 1999. According to the Journal Gazette, “If Daniels is open enough to say he’s conflicted on this subject, he has both the obligation and opportunity to open debate on the death penalty’s merits.”
For myself, the fact of executing a person for a horrible crime doesn’t bother me. What does bother me is the imperfection of the fact finding process. Our legal system is a good one, but it’s imperfect too often for something as important as the death penalty. The stories a couple of years back about Illinois’ investigation into its death penalty system and the people it had on death row was eye opening to me. It led to former Illinois Gov. George Ryan to commute the death sentences of the state’s death row inmates. Given Daniels’ ambivalence, perhaps he should open an investigation into Indiana’s death row inmates to make sure we don’t have innocent people (or people convicted on shaky evidence) on our own death row.
Leave a Reply