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Cherie Blair attacks US over death penalty in Catholic paper
Electronic Telegraph ^ | 08/02/2004) | Catherine Milner

Posted on 02/07/2004 8:39:48 PM PST by aculeus

Cherie Blair has renewed her attack on America's use of the death penalty. In a book review in the Catholic journal The Tablet, under her maiden name Cherie Booth, she says: "Capital cases are uniquely prone to error and thus call into question whether we can ever be really sure of obtaining the just result.

"The reality is that too many people - innocent people - are executed for the system to be able to claim a just precision." The newspaper asked Mrs Blair, a Catholic, to review Ultimate Punishment, a book by Scott Turow, the American lawyer and novelist.

Mrs Blair uses it as a platform to push her views about the death penalty, which is used in 38 US states. She begins the article suggesting that Americans are more aggressive than their European counterparts. "The observation 'Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus' is illustrated by the two nations' differing reactions to use of the death penalty," she writes.

"For many Americans there can only be proper retribution for the victim's family if the murderer too loses his life."

It is not the first time that Mrs Blair has courted controversy with her outspoken views on the death penalty. According to a biography of Mr Blair by Philip Stephens, published last month, the Prime Minister is reported to have "squirmed" when his wife challenged George W. Bush, the US president, over his support for the death penalty, during a dinner intended to bolster the "special relationship" between the US and Britain.

Mr Bush signed more than 150 death warrants when he was governor of Texas. But Mrs Blair, who is a human rights lawyer, bluntly told him that such executions were immoral and a violation of human rights. Robert Marshall-Andrews, the Labour MP, yesterday defended Mrs Blair's right to write the review for The Tablet.

"Mrs Blair has taken no vow of silence," he said. "She is speaking as a human being with a conscience and I think she should only be silent about parliamentary matters in which her husband is involved - and this is not one that is being debated here."

A leading Tory, however, disagreed. Ann Widdecombe, the former Home Office minister and also a Catholic, said last night: "I'm surprised the Prime Minister's wife is writing political articles in The Tablet. It seems an extraordinary thing to do. She has never understood that the role of the Prime Minister's wife is not to publicly interfere in political matters in this way. Secondly, I think that what she has written is wrong. The people of Europe - as opposed to its leaders - probably do believe in the death penalty as a method of deterrence."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; US: Florida; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: cherieblair
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She must be taking timing lessons from Al Gore.
1 posted on 02/07/2004 8:39:50 PM PST by aculeus
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To: aculeus
Cherie Blair must share a broom dealer with Hillary.
2 posted on 02/07/2004 8:40:53 PM PST by Keith in Iowa (The only good news for Democrats is they could save $$ by switching to Geico.)
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To: aculeus
No one ever executed committed another crime. If that isnt a deterrent I dont know what is. It sure stops one recidivist,
3 posted on 02/07/2004 8:45:48 PM PST by sgtbono2002 (I aint wrong, I aint sorry , and I am probably going to do it again.)
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To: aculeus
when she loses one of her friends or family members (not that I would wish that on anyone) and still feels this way, then I might be more likely to listen to her reasoning.
4 posted on 02/07/2004 8:49:44 PM PST by HungarianGypsy
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To: aculeus
"Mrs Blair, a Catholic"

Ohmigoodness, Cherie is a Catholic, I never knew that. File this under: learn something new everyday!
5 posted on 02/07/2004 8:54:10 PM PST by jocon307 (The dems don't get it, the American people do.)
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To: aculeus
The justice system does need reform, I'll grant that. Its present state of disarray can be attributed, I think, in large part to the war on poverty, uncontrolled immigration, and the war on drugs.
6 posted on 02/07/2004 9:24:37 PM PST by MegaSilver
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To: aculeus
Is she pro-life or pro-choice? If she is pro-choice then one could ask how does she justify her stance as 100 percent of the executed are innocent. There are no guilty aborted dead, but the innocent unborn are killed every day with (all) the states blessing. Does she feel the need to advocate for the innocent dead (in her country, Europe, worldwide) as she feels the need to condemn our system of justice that allows capital punishment. Why not advocate for the truly innocent, defenseless, and powerless. Well Duh Cherie!!!!!!!! If she is pro-life then speak out against the above.

I think my first take on her is on; pc euro-ewe!
7 posted on 02/07/2004 9:37:04 PM PST by Atchafalaya
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To: aculeus
Good article. What is Ms. Blair's stated opinion on abortion? BR, Bill
8 posted on 02/07/2004 9:38:56 PM PST by willyofftheyacht
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To: HungarianGypsy
then I might be more likely to listen to her reasoning.

I actually like her reasoning. It's not based on "we shouldn't kill bad people" like so many other people base their opposition to capital punishment on. Her reasoning is based on the fact that we don't do a good job in making sure that innocent people don't get fried up.

9 posted on 02/07/2004 9:43:20 PM PST by krb (the statement on the other side of this tagline is false)
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To: aculeus
I have a two word rebuttal for the PM's wifey. Carlie Brucia.
10 posted on 02/07/2004 9:44:06 PM PST by DeepDish (This space for rent.)
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To: aculeus
Why would anyone in America give a ratsass what Cherie Blair says?
11 posted on 02/07/2004 9:47:44 PM PST by saint
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To: aculeus
Mrs. Blair should tell the parents of little Carlie from Sarasota, Florida her views of the death penalty. Let her look them in the eye and say the monster that murdered their beautiful little girl should live out his life. I admire Tony's Blair stance on international affairs, but his wife needs to stay the hell out of our internal affairs.
12 posted on 02/07/2004 9:50:03 PM PST by dougherty (I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. -Michelangelo)
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To: Keith in Iowa
Rhymes with witch.
13 posted on 02/07/2004 9:52:01 PM PST by Finalapproach29er ("Don't shoot Mongo, you'll only make him mad.")
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To: willyofftheyacht
How about what the opinion polls say in England about the death penalty. Last time I checked, a majority of brits SUPPORT the "backwards" American system. I thought all those liberal brits cared about "Democracy" and doing the "will of the people"! Oh, I guess only when it applies to other countries!
14 posted on 02/07/2004 9:53:23 PM PST by BillyBoy (George Ryan deserves a long term...without parole.)
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To: aculeus
I don't know if I'd compare this woman with Hillary Clinton.

I don't think lack of accuracy is the best argument against the death penalty, though it certainly has some merit.

The core issue is the state's responsibility to protect the innocent and to protect all life, in that order. But as this is a subtle distinction in a thorny issue, most will probably let Dan Rather make up their minds for them. /sarcasm.

15 posted on 02/07/2004 9:57:49 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: aculeus
I'm tired of people talking about the death penalty as if it were designed to be a deterrent. If it is a deterrent to some would-be murderer, then that's a bonus, but it's not the purpose of the death penalty. It's the death PENALTY. A penalty is, according to Webster's dictionary, "the suffering in person, rights, or property that is annexed by law or judicial decision to the commission of a crime or public offense." It has nothing to do with deterrence.

With all due respect to Mrs. Blair, the death penalty is legal under the U.S. Constitution and supported by a majority of the people whose opinion counts (Americans) and not subject to the laws of any other country or entity, thereby rendering it none of her damn business.
16 posted on 02/07/2004 10:05:27 PM PST by wimpycat ("Black holes are where God divided by zero.")
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To: aculeus
Definition of a Liberal: Someone who has never been mugged.
17 posted on 02/07/2004 10:51:29 PM PST by 3catsanadog (When anything goes, everything does.)
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To: wimpycat
Dead right. Fear and hatred of America is the engine of the European Left, they've got no other song.

18 posted on 02/08/2004 12:02:13 AM PST by The Celtic Conservative
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To: krb
Maybe I just take it a little personally. Our local paper has an ultra-liberal writer on it, that even the other reporters refer to as "the paper's liberal". After one particular article referring to how sad it is that people are on death row I sent off a letter to the editor stating that with the number of appeals that killers get to go through, the liklihood of putting an innocent person to death is very minimal. My dad's killer took his appeals to the USSC, and now we're back to the beginning. The victims never get a second chance.
19 posted on 02/08/2004 1:12:18 AM PST by HungarianGypsy
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To: wimpycat
You're right, it is supposed to be a penalty. But the fact is opponents of the DP always throw the argument about it being no deterrent in the faces of the proponents. If no one challenges them on that, they always postulate the additional argument about accidently executing innocent people.

But as a person who was formerly opposed to the DP but became convinced over the years in the deterrent effect, that aspect of the argument must be made known to the anti-DPers. When there was a moratorium on the DP from the late sixties to the late seventies, the national violent crime and murder rate shot up dramatically. Since the reinstitution of the DP in the late seventies, the same rates have gone down dramatically. In my opinion the simple truth is that we Americans are more prone to violent crime than many other "civilized" countries, and the death penalty deters many wouldbe murderers.

20 posted on 02/08/2004 1:28:51 AM PST by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion. ie)
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