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Q: Is a life sentence in Tamms a severe punishment? A: I don't think anybody would want to live that way. Plenty of people involved in prisoners'-rights issues believe this is cruel and unusual punishment. I part company with them. I'm sorry, but you can't have it all. You can't say there's going to be no death penalty and then say we can't have severe conditions of confinement.
Q: Will the death penalty be an issue in the 2004 Presidential campaign? A: I'm almost positive it won't be. Democrats know that their problem is to attract white male [voters]. None of the Democratic candidates is against the death penalty, including Howard Dean, who used to be against it.
Q: Why do you think the U.S. is so pro-death penalty, while most other industrialized democracies consider it barbaric. A: One reason is that we have four-to-five times more murders than those countries.
Q: Aren't the two connected somehow? A: You think the death penalty and the murder rate are connected?
Q: I think the idea that Americans tolerate high levels of violence... A: The idea that we tolerate violence -- yes, but more particularly that we tolerate handguns. Certainly our laws on handguns and our murder rates are inextricably connected. But we're also a far more divided and fractious society.
Q: You nonetheless believe that capital punishment one day will be banned in the U.S. A: I think the momentum for capital punishment is slowing, and the momentum against it is increasing. As Americans increasingly recognize the [psychological] maiming that's usually in the background of someone who commits these acts, as they become more sophisticated about the law and its limitations, as they become more aware of how often innocent people are convicted in these cases, [the momentum against it will increase].
Q: You also mention globalization as a factor. A: Sooner or later, it's just going to become too embarrassing to sit there and explain to someone in Rome why you think the death penalty is a good idea. We've exported a lot of our culture, but the death penalty is one piece of it that hasn't traveled well. America also is a much more fundamentalist country than we like to acknowledge... Hellfire and damnation, rather than forgiveness, are very much a part of the fabric of American life.
Q: What makes capital crimes so different from other crimes? A: Most of these cases involve [crimes] that are not only beyond the capacity but beyond the imagination of many of us. These are often just monstrous crimes where a woman, say, is not just violated sexually but beaten and slashed to pieces. Then you say, "And that guy over there did it!" Very often, you don't have to say anything more. The level of pressure [to convict] in cases where there is a monster among us is enormous.
Q: Why would someone like you, who makes a good living and has a comfortable life, seek out these people… A: [Laughs]. You mean, what kind of sick voyeur am I?
Q: No, I'm thinking you're probably idealistic. You've taken on the cases of inmates you thought were innocent or had received too severe a sentence. A: By the time Presumed Innocent had been published [in 1987] and The Burden of Proof was on the way, I realized that I was freed of the excuse that I needed to make a living. In terms of the time I spent being a lawyer, [money] was largely beside the point. I just said to myself, "Why not do some of the things you promised yourself when you were 25 years old you would eventually do?"
So, I have. And I'm glad I have. It has worked out well for me and for a number of clients. And it has taught me a lot of things I didn't know.
Peterson is a contributing editor at BusinessWeek Online. Follow his weekly Moveable Feast column, only on BusinessWeek Online Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
Copyright 2003, Bloomberg L.P.
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