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Wednesday, January 15, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:17 AM:
Here's Rod Dreher, supporting Governor Ryan on the death penalty question. John O'Sullivan doesn't agree. He's right on this point (which the TurkeyBlog made the other day):And those cheering, finally, must have been aware — uneasily, one trusts — that Mr. Ryan was abusing his power of commutation not to save innocent men but to repeal a law passed by the Illinois legislature and supported by the voters of Illinois that he and his political allies are unable to repeal by democratic debate and electoral struggle. We might call that a miscarriage of democracy.The TurkeyBlog agrees with O'Sullivan's analysis but laments that Illinois won't come around to Dreher's views. Which brings me to this conclusion: In theory, the people of Illinois deserve to live with the ugly mess they've made of their political and judicial systems, score for O'Sullivan. But in practice, there's a risk of innocents dying for it, for which reason I'm with Dreher. If you'll forgive the bizarre phrasing, in a perfect world the death penalty might have its place. In our imperfect world, though, there's too much risk of adding to rather than redressing the wrongs of life. The government shouldn't be entrusted with this power.
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