What a difference four years make. In 2020 the Democratic Party took an aggressively anti-death penalty position.
Not so this year.
In 2020 Joe Biden pledged that if he was elected president he would stop federal executions, propose legislation to abolish the death penalty at the federal level, and provide incentives for states to follow suit. “Because we can’t ensure that we get these cases right every time,” candidate Biden tweeted, “we must eliminate the death penalty.”
That year the party also voiced its opposition to the death penalty in its platform.
This year marks a striking contrast. So far Democrats have been silent about capital punishment. To date, Kamala Harris, its 2024 nominee, has said nothing about capital punishment. Moreover, as an article in The Huffington Post points out, “This year’s platform marks the first time since 2004 the platform has not mentioned the death penalty.” In fact, the only mention of it in this year’s Democratic National Convention was made by four members of the so-called ExoneratedFive. They were convicted of a crime they did not commit in 1989, and they reminded the delegates that Donald Trump had called for their execution.
The Democrats’ silence about capital punishment does not represent a principled retreat, but rather an understandable strategic calculation. Nonetheless, it is a missed opportunity to advance the abolitionist cause.
For a long time, Democrats were afraid to talk about the death penalty or embrace that cause. They lived with the traumatic memory of the way that issue was used against Michael Dukakis, their 1988........