NEW VOICES: George Will Says ​“Capital Punishment is Withering Away”

Conservative commentator George Will has decribed capital punishment in America as “withering away.” In his syndicated column in the Washington Post, Will outlines a conservative case against the death penalty, highlighting Nebraska’s recent legislative vote to repeal capital punishment. Writing that “exonerations of condemned prisoners and botched executions are dismayingly frequent,” Will lists three primary reasons why he believes conservatives should oppose capital punishment: “First, the power to inflict death cloaks government with a majesty and pretense of infallibility discordant with conservatism. Second, when capital punishment is inflicted, it cannot later be corrected because of new evidence, so a capital punishment regime must be administered with extraordinary competence. It is, however, a government program…Third, administration of death sentences is so sporadic and protracted that their power to deter is attenuated.” Will recognizes that there is an urge to severely punish the worst crimes, saying, “Sentencing to death those who commit heinous crimes satisfies a sense of moral proportionality.” However, he says, this satisfaction is “purchased with disproportionate social costs.” America, he says, is exhibiting “a healthy squeamishness” about the death penalty “that should herald abolition.”

(G. Will, “Capital punishment’s slow death,” The Washington Post, May 20, 2015.) See New Voices and Recent Legislation.