USA - Former Justice John Paul Stevens: I Was Wrong on the Death Penalty.

Former Justice John Paul Stevens: I Was Wrong on the Death Penalty. Former Justice John Paul Stevens is a man of few regrets from his nearly 35 years on the Supreme Court, except one – his 1976 vote to reinstate the death penalty. “I really think that I’ve thought over a lot of cases I’ve written over the years. And I really wouldn’t want to do any one of them over…With one exception,” he told me. “My vote in the Texas death case. And I think I do mention that in that case, I think that I came out wrong on that,” Stevens said. At the time he thought the death penalty would be confined “to a very narrow set of cases,” he said. But instead it was expanded and gave the prosecutor an advantage in capital cases, according to Stevens. The former associate justice has been an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, but his admission of that 1976 Jurek v. Texas vote comes at a time when the country appears to be revisiting its stance on the death penalty, in light of Troy Davis’ execution last week. He writes in his book that he regretted the vote “because experience has shown that the Texas statute has played an important role in authorizing so many deaths sentences in that state.” President Ford appointed Stevens in 1975. A year after his retirement Stevens is out with a memoir entitled “Five Chiefs,” about his time arguing in front of and then working with five different Chief Justices. Although he’s retired Stevens still keeps an office at the Supreme Court. Elena Kagan replaced him on the bench, and Stevens said he couldn’t be happier. “I agree with almost every– every vote she’s made since she’s-taken on the court” he said.