| | |  Editorials | February 2009 
Mexico's Crime Solution a Mistake
 Los Angeles Times
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 |  | Allies of Calderon's National Action Party say the push to reinstitute the death penalty is simply political maneuvering on the part of opponents who are pandering to popular outrage. |  | | |
In Mexico, the unchecked violence of the drug cartels brings daily tidings of kidnappings, murders and corruption throughout the legal system. Mexicans, fearful and frustrated with the government's inability to prevail, are considering whether to reinstate the death penalty.
The Mexican Congress is to debate the issue this month, and news outlets report broad public support. That's understandable but wrongheaded, as the U.S. experience with capital punishment has made tragically clear. The Times has long opposed the death penalty on moral and political grounds. We cannot sanction the exercise of such profound government power, especially given the penalty's uneven and manifestly unfair application.
It is worth remembering, too, that the penalty's effectiveness as a deterrent is highly suspect. Buffeted by rising crime and violence, a majority of states rushed to legalize executions once capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. It was no solution. According to the FBI, states with the death penalty consistently have a higher murder rate than those without. In 1990, the difference was an average of only 4 percent; as of 2007, it was 42 percent.
Capital punishment was abolished in Mexico in 2005, though there had not been an execution since the 1960s. But the political repercussions were genuine. Mexico became a leader on the issue and an example for less enlightened countries, including the United States. Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976. Today the United States belongs to a sorry club, maintaining the death penalty along with such beacons of humanity as Iran, Pakistan, China and Sudan.
Rule of law will come to Mexico. President Felipe Calderon has successfully pushed through measures to modernize the judicial system; once implemented, these reforms may begin to eliminate judicial and police corruption, which remains frighteningly commonplace.
Allies of Calderon's National Action Party say the push to reinstitute the death penalty is simply political maneuvering on the part of opponents who are pandering to popular outrage, and we hope that's true. Mexico has claimed the moral leadership in this difficult debate, and it should not relinquish that position even in the face of its current crisis. |
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