TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/040290/0402108.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.7 KB | 85 lines

                                                                              NATION, Page 20

THE POLITICAL INTEREST

Cuomo, the Last Holdout


By Michael Kramer


    Back before BEST SEX I EVER HAD rendered Donald Trump's
mid-life crisis as understandable as George Bush's aversion to
broccoli, America's tabloids salivated over death sentences.
Stays of execution drove big-city newspapers to dizzying
heights of headline-writing competition. One memorable New York
Daily News screamer took the prize with a two-word expression
of considered opinion: FRY HIM!

    Readers are also voters -- or at least some are -- so it is
not surprising that death can drive politics. This year it
seems that a Democrat who does not affirm his affinity for
snuffing murderers may as well concede before the campaign
begins.

    Almost alone as the last holdout against capital punishment
is Mario Cuomo, who two weeks ago vetoed a death-penalty bill
for the eighth time since he became Governor of New York.

    The rush to death leaves Cuomo both angry and sad. "It's the
ultimate political cop-out," he says. "It reflects the
unwillingness of candidates to propose programs that might
actually impact on crime, because that might mean spending
money, and that can mean tax increases. It is easier to hold
out a quick fix, the idea that all will be well if we just burn
people."

    Everything about this latest rage, adds Cuomo quickly,
should be viewed as "a continuum. The '88 presidential campaign
was full of crassness and negativism. The lesson was, You do
what you have to to win. You lie, you cheat. Whatever it takes.
But engage in civil discourse? Forget about it. You want to
win, you follow the polls. Supporting the death penalty is just
the epitome of the syndrome. It's the shepherds following the
sheep, without stopping to think about what happens when the
sheep get to the cliff."

    Cuomo opposes the death penalty on all counts. It does not
deter, he says -- and indeed it has never convincingly been
shown to do so. It has been wrongly applied, says Cuomo -- and
according to one study, in New York alone, eight innocent
people have been executed since 1905. It is more costly than
life imprisonment, claims the Governor -- and, given the time
and funds expended by a state through the appeals process, he
is right. Above all, says Cuomo, it "demeans and debases us.
The death penalty tells our children that it is O.K. to meet
violence with violence."

    Still, the politics of death resonates -- so much so that
even Cuomo, to prove that he is "tough" on crime, now favors
life without parole as an alternative to the electric chair.
He admits such sentences negate the notion of rehabilitation
(which he still believes is possible,  "even in prison"), but
stopping the death penalty is Cuomo's overriding priority. And
if the New York legislature, which is said to be only a vote
shy in each chamber, finally overrides his veto? Then, says
Cuomo, he will follow the law and sign whatever death warrants
come his way. To commute all sentences blindly, he realizes,
would be "the height of arrogance. I would never impose my
personal views over the law."

    Cuomo's latest tactic is a referendum. "As soon as I can,"
he says, "I want to get two competing statutes on the ballot:
the death penalty and life without parole. I still think that
during a focused campaign on the issue, one where you can have
a real debate instead of a war between 30-second commercials,
my view can win." What would Cuomo's line be? "I want voters
to know that if they pull the lever for the death penalty, it
is the same as pulling the lever on the electric chair."

    Now that would be a campaign worth covering.