Barack Obama: Position on the Death Penalty

- Obama Supports the death penalty.
- Believes that the death penalty "does little to deter crime" but supports it for cases in which "the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage."
- As an Illinois lawmaker, Obama worked with law enforcement officials and wrote a bill mandating the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital punishment cases. He also sought other changes in a system that had produced wrongful convictions.
- Obama was involved in reforming the broken Illinois capital punishment system.
- Believes that the death penalty "does little to deter crime" but supports it for cases in which "the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage."
- As an Illinois lawmaker, Obama worked with law enforcement officials and wrote a bill mandating the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital punishment cases. He also sought other changes in a system that had produced wrongful convictions.
- Obama was involved in reforming the broken Illinois capital punishment system.