Obama's draconian new death penalty stance

Hours after the Supreme Court handed down a ruling banning the death penalty for the rape of a child, Democratic candidate Barack Obama found his inner Scalia and declared it a miscarriage of justice. "I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes," he told reporters at a press conference in Chicago. This is true. Despite the assumptions of some of his admirers, for at least as long as he has held political ambitions, Barack Obama has positioned himself as a supporter of state-sanctioned murder. There's no question the sexual assault of a child is a monstrous thing, the kind of utterly indefensible crime that can test the resolve of anyone who opposes the death penalty on moral grounds.

source: Article 'Obama's Draconian New Death Penalty Stance' by Liliana Segura; www.alternet.org/rights/89573/?ses=b9fc85ca8571585201229ea852d96ee2; AlterNet; 27 June 2008