Not so long ago, opposing the death penalty was a death knell for presidential candidates. Michael Dukakis sank his remaining hopes in 1988 when he told a debate questioner he would oppose execution even for someone who had raped and murdered his wife. Now, nearly all Democratic presidential hopefuls — with the notable exception of former Vice President Joe Biden — say they are against capital punishment, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), voted as a House member in 1994 for a bill that substantially expanded the federal death penalty. As a presidential candidate, Sanders opposes the death penalty and would commute all federal death sentences to life in prison. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), said one reason they oppose capital punishment is that “too many people are innocently convicted.” Since 1973, 165 Death Row inmates have been released from prison and cleared of their charges.
Opinion polls indicate a decline in nationwide support for the death penalty, from 80 percent in a 1994 Gallup survey to 56 percent last year. Sen. Kamala Harris, as California attorney general, defended California’s death penalty in court. As a presidential candidate, she has called the death penalty “immoral, discriminatory, ineffective.” Biden has given no indication of changing his longtime support for capital punishment. The law Congress approved in 1994, which the then-senator from Delaware labeled the “Biden Crime Bill,” added 60 capital crimes to the existing federal death penalty law. Other candidates opposing executions include Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Reps. Beto O’Rourke and Julian Castro, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and South Bend, In., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. The president has direct authority over the federal death penalty, which accounts for a small fraction of the 2,700 pending U.S. death sentences.