The Political Interest

By Michael Kramer

Back before BEST SEX I EVER HAD rendered Donald Trump's mid-life crisis as understandable as George Bush's aversion to broccoli, America's tabloids salivated over death sentences. Stays of execution drove big-city newspapers to dizzying heights of headline-writing competition. One memorable New York Daily News screamer took the prize with a two-word expression of considered opinion: FRY HIM!

Readers are also voters -- or at least some are -- so it is not surprising that death can drive politics. This year it seems that a Democrat who does not affirm his affinity for snuffing murderers may as well concede before the campaign begins.

Almost alone as the last holdout against capital punishment is Mario Cuomo, who two weeks ago vetoed a death-penalty bill for the eighth time since he became Governor of New York.

The rush to death leaves Cuomo both angry and sad. "It's the ultimate political cop-out," he says. "It reflects the unwillingness of candidates to propose programs that might actually impact on crime, because that might mean spending money, and that can mean tax increases. It is easier to hold out a quick fix, the idea that all will be well if we just burn people."

Everything about this latest rage, adds Cuomo quickly, should be viewed as "a continuum. The '88 presidential campaign was full of crassness and negativism. The lesson was, You do what you have to to win. You lie, you cheat. Whatever it takes. But engage in civil discourse? Forget about it. You want to win, you follow the polls. Supporting the death penalty is just the epitome of the syndrome. It's the shepherds following the sheep, without stopping to think about what happens when the sheep get to the cliff."

Cuomo opposes the death penalty on all counts. It does not deter, he says -- and indeed it has never convincingly been shown to do so. It has been wrongly applied, says Cuomo -- and according to one study, in New York alone, eight innocent people have been executed since 1905. It is more costly than life imprisonment, claims the Governor -- and, given the time and funds expended by a state through the appeals process, he is right. Above all, says Cuomo, it "demeans and debases us. The death penalty tells our children that it is O.K. to meet violence with violence."

Still, the politics of death resonates -- so much so that even Cuomo, to prove that he is "tough" on crime, now favors life without parole as an alternative to the electric chair. He admits such sentences negate the notion of rehabilitation (which he still believes is possible, "even in prison"), but stopping the death penalty is Cuomo's overriding priority. And if the New York legislature, which is said to be only a vote shy in each chamber, finally overrides his veto? Then, says Cuomo, he will follow the law and sign whatever death warrants come his way. To commute all sentences blindly, he realizes, would be "the height of arrogance. I would never impose my personal views over the law."

Cuomo's latest tactic is a referendum. "As soon as I can," he says, "I want to get two competing statutes on the ballot: the death penalty and life without parole. I still think that during a focused campaign on the issue, one where you can have a real debate instead of a war between 30-second commercials, my view can win." What would Cuomo's line be? "I want voters to know that if they pull the lever for the death penalty, it is the same as pulling the lever on the electric chair."

Now that would be a campaign worth covering.