MEXICO SHOULDN'T RESURRECT THE DEATH PENALTY

A Stream of Kidnappings and Murders Is Prompting Calls to Reinstate
Executions. But Doing So Would Cost the Country the Moral Leadership
It Has Shown on the Issue.

In Mexico, the unchecked violence of the drug cartels brings daily
tidings of kidnappings, murders and corruption throughout the legal
system. It is in this context that Mexicans, fearful and frustrated
with the government's inability to prevail, are considering whether to
reinstate the death penalty.

The Mexican Congress is to debate the issue this month, and news
outlets report broad public support. That's understandable but
wrongheaded, as the United States' experience with capital punishment
has made tragically clear. This page has long opposed the death
penalty on moral and political grounds -- we cannot sanction the
exercise of such profound government power, especially given the
penalty's uneven and manifestly unfair application.

It is worth remembering too that the penalty's effectiveness as a
deterrent is highly suspect. Buffeted by rising crime and violence, a
majority of states rushed to legalize executions once capital
punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. It was no
solution. According to the FBI, states with the death penalty
consistently have a higher murder rate than those without. In 1990,
the difference was an average of only 4%; as of 2007, it was 42%.

Capital punishment was abolished in Mexico in 2005 in a move that
seemed mostly symbolic -- there had not been an execution since the
1960s. But the political repercussions were genuine. Mexico became a
leader on the issue and an example for less enlightened countries,
including the United States. Canada abolished the death penalty in
1976, so the U.S. found itself bracketed between forward-thinking
allies. Today, it belongs to a sorry club, along with such beacons of
humanity as Iran, Pakistan, China and Sudan. Together, these nations
perform more than 90% of executions worldwide, according to Amnesty
International.

Rule of law will come to Mexico. President Felipe Calderon has
successfully pushed through measures to modernize the judicial system;
once implemented, these reforms may begin to eliminate judicial and
police corruption, which remains frighteningly commonplace. In the
recent case of a teenager's kidnapping and murder, for example, the
chief suspects are police officers. And late last year, prosecutors
arrested or fired 35 members of an elite organized-crime unit believed
to have aided drug traffickers.

Allies of Calderon's National Action Party say the push to reinstitute
the death penaltyis simply political maneuvering on the part of
opponents who are pandering to popular outrage, and we hope that's
true. Mexico has claimed the moral leadership in this difficult
debate, and it should not relinquish that position even in the face of
its current crisis.