{"id":798,"date":"2005-03-01T11:31:53","date_gmt":"2005-03-01T16:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/03\/01\/death_penalty_f\/"},"modified":"2005-03-01T11:31:53","modified_gmt":"2005-03-01T16:31:53","slug":"death_penalty_f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/03\/01\/death_penalty_f\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Penalty for Youths Unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court ruled this morning<\/a> that the death penalty for people under the age of 18 when they committed their crime is \u201cunconstitutionally cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 5-4 decision may prompt greater discussion of the death penalty in the Virginia races for governor and delegates in November. Virginia is one of 19 states that allows for the killing of convicted murders who were juveniles when their crimes were committed.<\/p>\n

One of the GOP candidates for governor, Jerry Kilgore, has been trying to make the death penalty an issue, as likely Democratic nominee Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine is morally opposed to the death penalty but has promised to uphold it because it is legal. <\/p>\n

Coincidentally, Marc Fisher of The Washington Post, has a column today<\/a> that outlines Kaine\u2019s challenge. Kilgore seems willing to wage his campaign by attacking Kaine\u2019s faith. As a Catholic who adheres to the church\u2019s position, Kaine opposes capital punishment. <\/p>\n

The issue points to the contradiction of Kilgore\u2019s attack. He wants his faith to guide his politics but criticizes Kaine when he does the same.<\/p>\n

“Faith does shape my views on public policy, from prayer in school to other issues,” Kilgore says. “I don’t believe in gay adoption — it’s a faith issue for me.”<\/p>\n

Kaine responds that “I think life is sacred, whether it’s abortion or the death penalty.” He immediately adds that “I’m going to take an oath and fulfill my office.” Meaning he will not delay executions or use the clemency power unless he is persuaded that a convict is actually innocent.<\/p>\n

Kaine’s attempt to thread a politically acceptable path between his core beliefs and his proposed policies creates a huge opening for Kilgore. What does Kaine really believe, Kilgore will ask. If those are his true beliefs, shouldn’t he govern accordingly? If he’s willing to shelve his core values, what does that say about his character?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a fair question, but maybe it also provides an opportunity for Kaine to attack Kilgore. If Kilgore wants to attack Kaine for his religious beliefs, Kaine can\u2019t be criticized for painting Kilgore as intolerant of other religions, especially Catholicism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court ruled this morning that the death penalty for people under the age of 18 when they committed their crime is \u201cunconstitutionally cruel.\u201d The 5-4 decision may prompt greater discussion of the death penalty in the Virginia races for governor and delegates in November. Virginia is one of 19 states that allows for… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}