Politics Today: Kill a Criminal, Win a Vote

Baby-kissing has long been a politician’s safe route to popularity.

Somewhere along the line, though, candidates found a more lucrative activity: executing criminals.

Everybody, or so it seems, likes politicians who would pull the switch.

Not politicians who would actually pull the switch, mind you, but who would spare no rhetoric or deed to convince voters that they weren’t soft on crime.

That led to public pandering on everything from the death penalty to mandatory sentencing to three-strikes legislation.

Topping my list would be then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton taking a break from the campaign trail early in 1992 to return to Arkansas for an execution.

Not wanting to be seen as a bleeding heart, Clinton used a Death Row inmate as a prop. Is there anything in Clinton’s personal or political leanings that suggest he is, at heart, a staunch death penalty defender?

Hardly. He gets misty-eyed at ice cream socials.

Closer to home, Gov. Gray Davis hopped the same bandwagon. Knowing there’s no political capital in paroling convicts, especially if you’re a Democrat linked to Jerry Brown, Davis had turned down parole in all 29 cases referred to him by the Board of Prison Terms--until agreeing to his first release this week.

That 29-for-29 record had critics asking why the state even has a parole board. But Davis (and most other governors with parole power) remember Vice President George Bush’s TV ads in the 1988 presidential race. He used the weekend furlough of convicted murderer Willie Horton to suggest that Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis, then Massachusetts governor, was a pushover.

That ad sentenced Dukakis to political death row.

Outcomes like that significantly narrow the field of Democratic public officials willing to buck the system. Thankfully, at least two big-state Republican governors have stepped forward.

Bucking the Trend

Expressing doubts after a dozen death row inmates had been exonerated in recent years, Illinois Gov. George Ryan has declared a moratorium on executions. John Engler of Michigan, with credentials strong enough to have been mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate, has stated his opposition to the death penalty.

A big-state Republican governor not likely to join them--at least, not this year--is George W. Bush of Texas. To the contrary, the candidate has said he not only supports capital punishment but is confident that all of the more than 130 inmates executed during his 5 1/2 years as governor deserved it.

I wonder if he has Gov. Engler’s phone number.

So if Democrats with political aspirations won’t challenge the status quo on crime and punishment, and if Republicans are philosophically “tougher” on the subject to begin with, who’s willing to stick his neck out?

Would you believe Orange County’s district attorney?

I didn’t believe it either.

But there was Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas at a press conference last week saying he and the county public defender have shaken hands on an aggressive pact to use DNA testing or fingerprints to identify wrongfully convicted prison inmates.

Rackauckas must be lauded for projecting traditionally conservative Orange County into the forefront of DNA testing in the state.

Under the agreement between Rackauckas and Public Defender Carl Holmes, questionnaires would be sent to hundreds of inmates in the state’s 33 prisons, asking if they know of potentially irrefutable evidence, such as DNA, that could prove their innocence. A four-person panel would screen the responses for possible follow-up.

What’s admirable about Rackauckas’ first step is that overturning a conviction is a complicated process and one that ultimately may not reflect well on whoever secured the conviction.

Because that means political risk, it’s not territory most district attorneys want to explore.

Rackauckas himself successfully prosecuted murder suspect DeWayne McKinney 20 years ago--and argued for the death penalty--until supporting his release earlier this year when a new investigation and another man’s confession raised doubts about McKinney’s guilt.

Unfortunately in the current political climate, only D.A.s and judges seen as tough on crime are taken seriously on criminal justice reforms.

Rackauckas could have kissed a baby and waited for some other district attorney to hook up with a public defender.

Instead, he’s taken what may prove to be a quantum leap in improving the state’s justice system.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers can reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.