In his opening remarks, Senator Mark Leno mentioned that the death penalty was not a necessary factor in ensuring public safety. After all, he said, we can lock up violent criminals for life without possibility of parole. I wonder if this position is substantive or strategic. After these remarks, it was interesting to see that, beyond the wall-to-wall objection to the death penalty, there was no consensus on other, broader perspectives on crime and punishment. Some of the activists (including yours truly) felt rather uncomfortable with this narrow definition of what is wrong with the correctional system. The answer to crime lies, perhaps, not in simply substituting the death penalty with a wholesale system of LWOP. However, framing the struggle for human rights as an issue pertaining to ALL corrections, not just the death penalty, might mean the loss of victims and their family, as well as of law enforcement entities. It's really a tough one.
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