Following is my most recent post on the Daily Kos affiliate the
Political State Report.
MN: Governor wants death penalty on November ballot
In what is more or less a response to the kidnapping case of Dru Sjodin, the young female North Dakota State University student who went missing a couple months ago, Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) has announced he wants to put a measure on the November ballot that would let Minnesotans vote on whether or not to reinstate capital punishment.
In a move largely criticized as opportunistic and in very poor taste, Pawlenty announced he wanted the legislature to consider reinstating the death penalty in the days shortly after Sjodin disappeared. A convicted sex offender, Alfonso Rodriguez, has been arrested in connection with the case, though no sign of Sjodin has been found after months of extensive searching.
The recent change in tactics, taking the issue directly to the voters, comes after it became apparent that Pawlenty's proposal to the state legislature stood little chance of succeeding. Even the Republican-controlled House of Representatives didn't appear very promising, with several members on both sides of the aisle publicly reaffirming their opposition to capital punishment.
Minnesota voters are apparently almost evenly divided on the issue (a recent poll found 46 percent in favor of life in prison for convicted murderers, 43 percent in favor of the death penalty). The state has not had the death penalty for almost 100 years:
What led lawmakers to outlaw the practice? Firsthand experience. Lawmakers who approved the ban 93 years ago were haunted by the spectacle of the state's last execution -- the 1906 hanging of William Williams in St. Paul. The event was a major-league botch-job: The murderer fell from the gallows straight to the floor at the end of rope six inches too long. Three deputy sheriffs pulled up the rope's slack, dangling the condemned man in midair for 15 minutes while he choked to death.
While questions of the pure barbarity of state mandated killing factor heavily into the minds of progressive Minnesotans, and can hardly be resolved no matter how Pawlenty frames his argument in favor of capital punishment, the governor did go out of his way in his proposal to address the more modern concern of innocent people being sentenced to death.
The governor's proposal that he would like to put in front of voters would contain multiple "safeguards," such as requiring more than one eye witness and DNA evidence, as well as a lengthy and mutli-level review process, before anyone could be killed by the state.
