Why Stevens’ Anti-Death-Penalty Argument Is Powerful
By Adam Cohen Wednesday, Dec. 01, 2010
Former Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired from the Supreme Court in June after turning 90, has come out swinging in the past few days against the death penalty. In an appearance on 60 Minutes this past Sunday and a New York Review of Books essay that is now online, Justice Stevens makes the case that capital punishment as it is now administered in the U.S. is hopelessly flawed — and unconstitutional.
In so doing, he is pushing the death-penalty debate just where it needs to go. ...