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Obama disagrees with high court on child rape case
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-26 09:13 "While the evidence tells me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes - mass murder, the rape and murder of a child - so heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment," he wrote in his book "The Audacity of Hope." In 1988, a question about rape and capital punishment tripped up Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. Dukakis was asked during a nationally televised debate with Republican George H. W. Bush whether he'd still oppose the death penalty if his wife were raped and murdered. His unemotional, dispassionate answer was ridiculed, and gave Republicans more material to paint him as an emotionless liberal. At the news conference Wednesday, Obama answered questions on a number of topics, including a compromise eavesdropping bill the Senate was preparing to consider. He said he supports the bill, which would establish new rules to govern when the National Security Agency, CIA, FBI or others can tap American phone and computer lines. The bill also effectively gives legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on calls and e-mails for years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, without the approval of a special, secret court. Obama, who opposed an earlier version of the bill, said he supports the compromise partly because it would prohibit presidents from superseding surveillance rules in the future. |
