Mario Cuomo: Death penalty is dead wrong: It's time to outlaw capital punishment

Death penalty is dead wrong: It's time to outlaw capital punishment in America - completely
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/10/02/2011-10-02_death_penalty_is_dead_wrong_its_time_to_outlaw_capital_punishment_in_america__co.html?print=1&page=all

I have studied the death penalty for more than half my lifetime. I have debated it hundreds of times. I have heard all the arguments, analyzed all the evidence I could find, measured public opinion when it was opposed to the practice, when it was indifferent, and when it was passionately in favor. Always I have concluded the death penalty is wrong because it lowers us all; it is a surrender to the worst that is in us; it uses a power - the official power to kill by execution - that has never elevated a society, never brought back a life, never inspired anything but hate.

And it has killed many innocent people.

This is a serious moral problem for every U.S. governor who presides over executions - whether in Georgia, Texas or even, theoretically, New York. All states should do as the bold few have done and officially outlaw this form of punishment.

(snip)
Because the death penalty was so popular during the time I served as governor, I was often asked why I spoke out so forcefully against it although the voters very much favored it. I tried to explain that I pushed this issue into the center of public dialogue because I believed the stakes went far beyond the death penalty itself. Capital punishment raises important questions about how, as a society, we view human beings. I believed as governor, and I still believe, that the practice and support for capital punishment is corrosive; that it is bad for a democratic citizenry and that it had to be objected to and so I did then, and I do now and will continue to for as long as it and I exist, because I believe we should be better than what we are in our weakest moments.

I think there are a few circumstances where capital punishment is called for. But only in very rare circumstances. Crimes against humanity, war crimes, mass murder.