As long as he has stupid people who'll vote for him no matter what he
says, Mitt doesn't need to know the truth...


Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday
asserted that the death penalty prevented “the most heinous crimes.”

During a town hall event in Grand Junction, Colorado, a man who
identified himself a “the local D.A.” asked Romney to respond to a
recent Supreme Court ruling that banned mandatory life sentences for
minors who are convicted of murder.

Instead of taking a position on the Supreme Court ruling, the former
Massachusetts governor took the opportunity to express his support for
capital punishment.

“I realize that this wasn’t a death penalty case… but I happen to
believe that the death penalty tends to prevent some of the most
heinous crimes,” Romney said, pausing for the audience to cheer.

“And I also believe that the prison terms that are of the nature you
describe can also prevent some of the most heinous crimes from
occurring,” the candidate continued. “I believe in this case, the
Supreme Court was looking at the age of the offender. Boy, I’ll tell
you, a 17 year old, a setting like that just breaks my heart. I’ll
look at the particular case.”

“But I can tell you, I’m someone who comes down on the side of swift
and severe punishment for those who commit these serious crimes.”

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, non-death penalty
states had a 25 percent lower murder rate than states with the death
penalty in 2010. In fact, states without a death penalty have had
consistently lower murder rates every year for the last 20 years.

A 2009 study (PDF) published in the Journal of Criminal Law and
Criminology found that 88 percent of the country’s top criminologists
did not believe the death penalty was a deterrent.