It was 155 years ago when more than 2,000 people in Kenosha, Wis., watched John McCaffry dangle from a noose, writhing for several minutes before his body went limp. McCaffry, who had drowned his wife, Bridgett, in a large backyard cask, was the last person to be executed in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin voters face a referendum in November asking whether the state should resume executions. Such a vote is rare nationwide.
Other states are fine-tuning their death penalty laws. South Dakota and Illinois are adjusting their laws to incorporate new technologies in DNA evidence and execution methods. But Wisconsin's showdown cuts to the essence of the arguments over capital punishment.
"It is time for this state to correct a 150-year-old mistake and bring back the death penalty," said Mike Tellier, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse who leads a College Republicans chapter. "It's a simple matter of justice. If someone close to me was killed, I would demand justice."
Tellier planned to mobilize like-minded students as classes began this week.
In Hudson, Jose Vega is joining a campaign that death penalty foes started last week.
"Reinstating the death penalty is a backward move, and it goes against the whole progressive history of this state," said Vega, who is a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. "If we say we truly value life, we have to value all life." [snip] Duluth News Tribune
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