Death penalty call resounds with base, but isn’t practical

AT a time when many conservatives are embracing the idea of reforming criminal codes, President Trump is taking a different tack with drug dealers specifically. Trump would like prosecutors to be able to pursue the death penalty in those cases.

Trump has supported efforts to help inmates prepare for jobs on the outside. Earlier this year, he touted programs in Kentucky and Kansas that are geared toward nonviolent offenders, and said job training and mentoring while behind bars are ways to help provide a “ladder of opportunity to the future” for the hundreds of thousands of inmates who get released from prison each year.

For drug dealers, however, Trump assumes the ultimate tough-on-crime stance, borrowing from China’s President Xi Jinping and practices in Singapore.

“Some countries have a very tough penalty, the ultimate penalty, and they have much less of a drug problem than we do,” Trump said last week during an opioids summit at the White House. Friday, The Washington Post reported that the administration was mulling policy changes to let prosecutors seek the death penalty.

Trump elaborated on this effort Saturday, during a rally on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.

“A drug dealer will kill 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 people during the course of his or her life,” the president said. “Thousands of people are killed or their lives are destroyed, their families are destroyed. So, you can kill thousands of people and go to jail for 30 days.”

A drug dealer “might get 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, you might get a year,” Trump said. “... That’s why we have a problem with drugs. And I don’t think we should play games.”

To be sure, drug dealers deserve to do serious time for their crimes. And many do. In Oklahoma, a person convicted twice for drug trafficking faces a penalty of 20 years to life in prison, or life without parole. A third trafficking conviction brings a mandatory penalty of life without parole.

Reporters who covered Trump’s rally Saturday said his message was well received, which is to be expected given that attendees were hard-core supporters of the president. But it’s worth asking whether the United States really wants to emulate policies from places like China and Singapore, two countries notorious for having dismal human rights records.

It also is worth considering that pursuit of the death penalty nationwide is waning, in part because juries often are reluctant to impose it. It continues to enjoy broad support in Oklahoma, with voters in 2016 overwhelmingly approving a pro-death penalty state question, but concerns about the protocol have left the death chamber unused since fall 2015.

Responding to a question about Trump’s call, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, who would hardly be considered “soft on crime,” said flatly that he opposes the idea of the death penalty for drug distribution crimes. Trump would do well to seek input from the men and women who deal with this issue every day.

“These people are killing our kids and they’re killing our families, and we need to do something,” Trump said. Yes, but the death penalty isn’t it.