In a February 6 edi­to­r­i­al, The New York TImes hails the reform efforts of the ​“new gen­er­a­tion” of state and local pros­e­cu­tors who are work­ing to change the United States’ crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, and espe­cial­ly the use of the death penal­ty. The Times high­lights the com­ments of two new­ly elect­ed local pros­e­cu­tors, Beth McCann, the new pros­e­cu­tor in Denver, Colorado, and Kim Ogg, the new dis­trict attor­ney in Harris County, Texas. McCann has said her office will not seek the death penal­ty because she does not think ​“that the state should be in the busi­ness of killing peo­ple.” Ogg has pledged that there will be ​“very few death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions” dur­ing her tenure as dis­trict attor­ney. The Times also notes the lead­er­ship of state elect­ed offi­cials, point­ing to Washington state, where cur­rent Democratic Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, and his Republican pre­de­ces­sor, Rob McKenna, are joint­ly sup­port­ing a death penal­ty repeal bill. ​“Prosecutors aren’t just seek­ing few­er death sen­tences; they’re open­ly turn­ing against the prac­tice, even in places where it has tra­di­tion­al­ly been favored,” the edi­to­r­i­al states, cit­ing the his­tor­i­cal­ly low num­ber of death sen­tences in 2016. Emphasizing the influ­ence of these state and local offi­cials, it calls the role of pros­e­cu­tor, ​“one of the most pow­er­ful yet least under­stood jobs in the jus­tice sys­tem.” Their role is espe­cial­ly crit­i­cal as nation­al lead­ers present a ​“dis­tort­ed … real­i­ty of crime in America” in sup­port of a ​“law and order” agen­da, the Times says. ​“In these cir­cum­stances, the best chance for con­tin­ued reform lies with state and local pros­e­cu­tors who are open to rethink­ing how they do their enor­mous­ly influential jobs.”

(Editorial, ​“A Wiser Generation of Prosecutors,” The New York Times, February 6, 2017.) See Editorials and New Voices.

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