Reading the New York Times at breakfast is more than a habit. It is a sort of addiction. One experiences withdrawal symptoms in places where the paper is not available (especially when the only alternative is USA Today). At least in this country, the Times has no serious rival for good international news coverage, by some of the best journalists around. The editorial page is another matter, a predictable assortment of politically correct opinions. [Relevant joke: What will be the very last headline of the New York Times? – “World Ends Tomorrow: Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered Persons Hit Hardest.”] I rarely agree with a Times editorial. I did on April 13, 2012. The editorial was headed “More Evidence Against the Death Penalty”. The conclusion, with which I strongly agree, was that “Capital punishment… should be abolished throughout the United States.” I do have some questions about the “overwhelming evidence” cited in support of the conclusion.
The editorial was triggered by the news item that Connecticut has just voted to abolish the death penalty, thus becoming the 17th state without the penalty and the 5th to abolish it in the last five years. There is now a growing movement in this direction. Repeal measures are being prepared in California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky and Washington, and death penalty laws are under review in Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. If this movement continues, there is some chance that the United States may cease to be the exception among Western democracies in its enthusiasm for capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, which keeps abreast of this matter, the US is among the 22% of member nations of the United Nations who retain the death penalty both in law and in practice (quite a few have it on the books, but fail to use it). In 2011 the US was the only country in the Americas to have carried out executions. In 2010 it occupied the fifth place in the number of executions carried out (46). Only four countries were ahead of the US—China (2,000 executions), Iran (250), North Korea (60), Yemen (53). A noble company, one might say. As is well known, no country can be a member of the European Union if it retains the death penalty, and the US difference has been an important contribution to anti-Americanism in both Europe and Latin America.
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