Death penalty helping Trump upstage Democrats Capital Curmudgeon Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat USA TODAY NETWORK – FLA 7/28/2019 One neat thing about being the incumbent in a presidential race is, you get to set the agenda and make your opponent react to what you say and do. And then you depict his or her reaction as weak, dumb and — worst of all — liberal. That’s why the Department of Justice decision last week to resume executions of condemned federal prisoners — ending a 16-year hiatus — is politically important for President Trump. He, himself, is already the issue of the 2020 campaign and this gives him one more chance to make the Democrats weak. Never mind right and wrong, facts and figures. This is about what fits in a campaign slogan, bumper sticker or sound bite. Trump, tough. Democrats, it’s complicated. Not that there was ever any doubt where he stood. Long before he ran for office, back when he was just a famous rich guy, Trump was calling for reinstatement of capital punishment. He even spent $85,000 on full-page ads in four New York newspapers, urging resumption of executions when five Harlem men were wrongly accused of raping and beating a Central Park jogger in 1989. The men were convicted but later exonerated, and another man confessed to the crime. Trump has refused to say he was wrong about them, or the death penalty. As president, Trump misses no opportunity to show his toughness. On this issue, after the murders of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, he said, “People that do this, you have to bring back the death penalty. This is the worst form of terrorism.” It would be hard to find anything major that Trump and the Democratic contenders for president don’t hotly disagree about. Tax cuts, immigration, foreign policy, judicial appointments, and that little matter of impeachment — you name it, Trump says he’s doing great, and major Democrats deplore it. So it was no surprise when Attorney General William Barr announced last Thursday that executions will resume at the Terre Haute, Indiana, federal prison in December and January. He also said the government has a new drug, pentobarbital, to replace a troublesome lethal combo that was challenged in court as a cruel and unusual way of carrying out the ultimate sentence. Trump’s challengers reacted quickly and predictably. Sen. Bernie Sanders promised, “When I am president, we will abolish the death penalty.” Sen. Kamala Harris called it “immoral and deeply flawed,” adding that “we need a national moratorium on the death penalty, not a resurrection.” Joe Biden has had trouble deciding whether he wants to be wishy or washy on those federal crime statutes he supported as a U.S. Senator and chairman of the judiciary committee years ago. He recently came out against capital punishment, though, reversing a long-standing position. Whether he meant what he said about uneven, luck-of-the-draw application of the death penalty and some 160 exonerations of innocent inmates, or if he was just assuming the de rigueur posture of any Democratic nominee, Biden is now squarely opposed to Trump’s stance. And, whether he meant to or not, Barr scoured the 62 people on federal death row to find five truly vile killers to start the federal process. Each of them murdered children and four of the five had multiple victims — and the fifth tortured and murdered his 2year-old daughter. The Justice Department said they’d all exhausted their court appeals, but this latest action will probably prompt new filings. That change of chemicals, for instance, sounds like it will bring new court challenges. The New York Times reported that a Pew Research Center survey showed 54 percent public support for capital punishment, which is still on the books in 29 states. Florida had its first execution under Gov. Ron DeSantis recently, and no politician has ever suffered for supporting capital punishment in this state. Theologians, criminologists, lawyers, clergy and politicians can argue endlessly over the deterrent value, fairness or morality of execution vs. life without parole. But never mind all that, this is an election campaign. The Democratic nominee for president will most assuredly promise not to permit any executions in federal prisons, no matter how ghastly the crime or how guilty the killer. Trump, as we’ve seen, campaigns with all the nuanced subtlety, moral introspection and intellectual ambiguity of a Roadrunner cartoon. He’ll probably have crowds chanting about executions at his campaign rallies. - - - Bill Cotterell is a retired Tallahassee Democrat reporter who writes a twiceweekly column. He can be reached at bcotterell@tallahassee.com.