As you know, we currently have what amounts to a de facto moratorium on the death penalty as the General Assembly finds one excuse after another to clarify the state law.
Well, the U.S. Supreme Court took one of the General Assembly’s excuses off the table yesterday by upholding the constitutionality of lethal injection by a 7-2 decision.
It just so happens that we included in our poll this month a question on whether NC voters support the use of the death penalty. From our press release yesterday:
In conjunction with today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding
the constitutionality of lethal injection as a means to administer
capital punishment, the Civitas Institute released results of its April
DecisionMaker poll revealing that North Carolina voters approve of the
use of the death penalty by a greater than two to one margin.The Civitas Institute’s April DecisionMaker poll reveals that 60
percent of North Carolina voters support the use of the death penalty
in North Carolina, while only 27 percent are opposed. 12 percent were
undecided.
Read the full release here.
Will the General Assembly now act during the short session to clarify the use of the death penalty one way or another? Seems as if the public deserves an up or down vote one way or another. Either use it, ban it or pass a moratorium, but the General Assembly cannot shirk its responsibility to decide this issue (as they are elected to do, unlike the NC Medical Board) once and for all.
Found you via Bubba (Noteworthy). Immediately liked you (I like anyone who takes Cone to task). Linked you.
This General Assembly is well-versed at shirking responsibility. And please do not get me started on the Medical Board.
That being said, the moratorium on the death penalty should not be lifted until the Assemblage can figure out a way to take doctors out of the equation. I’m sure all those great minds can figure out a way to kill someone without requiring the one profession that’s sworn to “first do no harm” to “attend” the condemned (just to ease their colllective conscience and cut down on “cruel & unusual” appeals).
Just my opinion as a lowly subject of the Medical Board.