Taking off on a book title
from Texan gadfly Jim Hightower: If the gods meant us to give an endorsement
for Monroe County District Attorney, they would have given us a candidate… who
firmly opposes the death penalty.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Unfortunately, both candidates on the ballot, Mike Green
(Democratic and Crime Prevention parties) and Ann Marie Taddeo (Republican and
Conservative) support capital punishment.
During her campaign, Taddeo
has promised to seek the death penalty whenever it’s applicable and not
contrary to a victim’s family’s wishes. Ironically, as a Family Court judge,
she earned high marks from court watchers for her compassion. (This and other
bits of evidence suggest her election persona has been manufactured for the
occasion.)
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Mike Green shows no enthusiasm for the death penalty; he
told us basically that in regard to capital cases, he’d do his job as defined
by current law. Moreover, he feels there must be an extraordinary punishment
for the most heinous crimes. We take him at his word on these things, since
he’s already served as prosecutor on several capital cases. He’s also been a
high-ranking member of outgoing District Attorney Howard Relin’s team — and
Relin has long been a vocal death penalty supporter.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย In many ways, Green seems preferable to Taddeo, who
despite her Family Court record is running as the toughest kid on the block.
Especially worrisome is Taddeo’s promotion of Neighborhood Protection Zones
where plea bargaining would be prohibited. This violates equal protection, we
believe.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย But this newspaper cannot in conscience actually endorse
any candidate who supports capital punishment while seeking an office where it
may be an issue. We can only hope Taddeo and Green both will come to oppose
“judicial murder,” drawing on the decency they’ve quite separately
shown in the past.
— Jack
Bradigan Spula, for the editorial staff
Election 411
Polls will be open from 6
a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, November 4. For more information, call the Monroe
County Board of Elections at 428-4550 or visit www.monroecounty.gov
and link to “Board of Elections.”
To view City Newspaper‘s profiles of the Democratic candidates for
Rochester City School Board, visit:
The rest of our pre-election
coverage can be found in our news archives at:
Following is a list of the
website addresses for various candidates running for public office:
Maggie Brooks, candidate for
county executive:
Bill Johnson, candidate for
county executive:
Mike Green, candidate for
District Attorney:
Ann Marie Taddeo, candidate
for District Attorney:
Jason Crane, candidate for
City Council:
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2003.
