Election 2004: Where the Candidates Stand
Bush vs. Kerry for President
Information on George W. Bush taken from
the Death Penalty Information Center website
(www.
deathpenaltyinfo.org); information
on John Kerry taken from CNN.com:
George W. Bush
George W. Bush strongly favors the death
penalty. Bush was governor of Texas during
a record 152 executions, more than in any
other state in all of the previous 24 years
since the death penalty was reinstated.
And
it is not only the sheer number of executions:
during those years, Texas went vigorously
forward with executions of juvenile offenders,
the mentally retarded, foreign nationals
not informed of their rights under international
treaties, defendants with sleeping lawyers,
and others with serious doubts about their
guilt.
During his 2000 Presidential campaign,
Bush first found himself being scrutinized
on the death penalty when he reportedly mocked
the final entreaty of Karla Faye Tucker before
she was executed, imitating her saying: "Please,
don't kill me."
But the issue of innocence
has been the one most often raised. When
asked about the many executions under his
watch, Bush refused to acknowledge the growing
skepticism around the country about the reliability
of the death penalty system: "All I
can tell you," Bush said, "is that
for the four years I've been governor, I
am confident we have not executed an innocent
person, and I'm confident that the system
has worked to make sure there is full access
to the courts."
John Kerry
Sen. John Kerry opposes the death penalty,
except in cases of terrorism. In a Feb. 2004
debate, moderator Larry King asked Kerry
if a person who kills a 5- year-old should
live. "My instinct is to want to strangle
that person with my own hands," Kerry
said. "But we have 111 people who have
been now released from death row ... because
of . . . evidence that showed they didn't
commit the crime of which they were convicted.
Our system has made mistakes, and it's been
applied in a way that I think is wrong," he
said, adding that the death penalty also
compromised America's "civility" as
a nation.
Salazar vs. Coors for U.S. Senate
The following was excerpted from "Hopefuls
Sidestep Religion," by Eric Gorski,
The Denver
Post, August 16, 2004:
Ken Salazar
Ken Salazar grew up in the cradle of Colorado
Catholicism, studied for the priesthood as
a teen and keeps a Bible at his bedside.
He has long talked about the importance of
faith in shaping his values.
Salazar departs from church teachings by
backing the death penalty. It's a position
Salazar said he developed after working on
heinous murder trials such as that of Gary
Davis, who was convicted of abducting, sexually
torturing and killing Virginia May of Byers.
Davis' 1997 execution was the first in Colorado
in 30 years.
Pete Coors
Pete Coors is a convert to Catholicism,
a former Episcopalian who adopted the faith
of his wife after a process that began with
accompanying his family to Mass and culminated
at World Youth Day in Denver 11 years ago.
Now, explaining his faith in the public square
for the first time, the rookie politician says
he can't find much about Catholic teaching
he disagrees with. In a year in which the
personal faith of candidates has assumed
an unusually high profile, both men in Colorado's
nationally significant U.S. Senate race will
likely confront the risks and rewards of
explaining how their shared faith influences
their positions.
Coors opposes the death
penalty, which puts him in conflict with
most Republicans. Coors
said his positions on abortion and the death
penalty have remained constant. "In
terms of my attitudes, I don't think they've
changed markedly over the course of my life," he
said. "But when I became a Catholic,
I solidified my opinions on both issues."
