From the early days of the frontier, Americans have embraced the death penalty, even as they've tinkered with the machinery to find methods that are quicker, cleaner, and more just. But from the gallows to the chair to the gurney, Americans have struck an uneasy moral bargain with the ultimate criminal sanction.
For years the debate over capital punishment has weighed moral and religious concerns against the desire for retribution and justice. But now, in part because of DNA, the pace of death row exonerations is quickening, and reports of sleeping lawyers, crooked cops and forced confessions have convinced even some long-time death penalty supporters to look at recalibrating the scales, fixing or even abandoning the system.
Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA), co-sponsor of Innocence Protection Bill
Dudley Sharp, director of death penalty resources, Justice for All
Austin Sarat, professor of jurisprudence and political science, Amherst College, and author, "When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition"
