THERE ARE occasions when the United States seems an awfully long way from western Europe. Their puzzled television coverage of the football World Cup plays like the work of Venusians. Their taste for cherry-flavoured soft drinks suggests collective derangement. And so on, writes DONALD CLARKE
On a considerably more serious note, that nation’s continuing enthusiasm for the death penalty positively chills the blood. I should be more precise. Capital punishment remains, of course, depressingly popular throughout the world. Park yourself in a saloon bar – or its digital equivalent – following any gruesome murder and you will, most likely, hear any number of calls to “bring back hanging”.
In Dublin, Dubrovnik and Dortmund, a fair portion of perfectly reasonable individuals still seeks the return of that ultimate retribution.
In too many corners of the US, however, popular will drives the actual annihilation of condemned citizens. On Thursday, Troy Davis, convicted of murder on very shaky evidence, was executed by lethal injection in the state of Georgia. “I am innocent,” Davis said moments before the needle was applied. “I did not have a gun.”
It is fair to point out that there are fewer executions in the US than you might think. “Only” 46 inmates were put to death in 2010. Keep in mind that a worrying 17 of those happened in Texas and – as well as feeling a little more uneasy about the advance of Governor Rick Perry – you will admit that the nation’s authorities are not exactly syringe-crazy. Still, it is not a happy lot for the estimated 3,250 sitting sweatily on death row.
Few front-line US politicians have made any serious effort to oppose the death penalty. Returning to our opening point about the foreignness of America, it is worth noting that, in 2007, Barack Obama, then a rising force, wrote that he supported the death penalty in cases “so heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment”.
European readers could – notwithstanding the many lawyerly qualifications – be forgiven for rubbing their eyes furiously and looking around to check they had not been transported to Opposite Land.
At this stage in his career, Obama was being touted as the fresh face of latté-drinking liberal America. Yet he was supporting a policy that, in western Europe, only parties of the far right include in their manifestos. Welcome to the skinhead fringe, Barack.
The grim truth is that no US presidential candidate stands a chance if he or she does not support capital punishment. It comes as no surprise to hear that, at a recent debate, Perry, a serious contender for the Republican nomination, attracted applause when commenting on Texas’s disproportionate taste for killing its own citizens. It is more sobering to remember Bill Clinton’s conspicuous flight back to Arkansas to watch the execution of a mentally impaired black man during the 1992 campaign.
Here’s the point. You could argue that the mainstream American politician’s attitude towards the death penalty demonstrates that country’s firm respect for democracy. In a country that often elects sheriffs, judges and (beats me) comptrollers, it would require significant courage – some would say arrogance – to defy the electorate on such a significant issue. After all, a recent Gallup poll revealed that only 29 per cent of Americans oppose the death penalty.
And yet. The parliamentary democracies of western Europe have, over the decades, stubbornly, bravely refused to yield to popular pressure on this matter. Of course, membership of the Council of Europe prohibits individual states from bringing back the death penalty. But there are always votes in stringing up bad guys. Even a futile declaration of intent would appeal to a wide portion of the electorate.
Consider a recent farcical experiment with popular democracy in the United Kingdom. The coalition government promoted the setting up of a website that would allow visitors to establish “e-petitions”. Any sufficiently popular campaign could, in theory, generate a debate in the House of Commons. Well, you can see where this is heading. Within days, thousands had voted for a debate on bringing back capital punishment. A 2010 YouGov survey suggested that only 37 per cent of UK citizens would oppose the reinstitution of the death penalty.
Yet there is, among MPs, no significant support for a change in the law. Despite recent comments by retired judge Richard Johnson, who called for a return to executions, the situation remains much the same in this fine country.
For once, it behoves us – those of us from the bleeding-heart tendency, anyway – to tip our hats to the politicians. They are not all cowards. They do not always give in to the loudest, angriest voices. The fact that they have refused to reach for the rope does not mean they are not listening. It merely suggests they actually have some moral fibre. Are you paying attention, Mr Obama?