Execution is about barbaric vengeance, not justice or deterrence

Gov. Mike Braun has long described himself as “agnostic” on the death penalty. But Braun put the lie to that posture when he denied clemency for Roy Lee Ward, clearing the way for the state’s third execution in less than a year. Neutrality ends when the state straps someone on a gurney.

Unless courts intervene, Ward will be executed Friday for the 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne. The Indiana Parole Board, citing the brutal nature of the crime, unanimously recommended against clemency, and Braun agreed. No one disputes the horror of Payne’s death or the family’s grief. But every execution is a policy choice — and one that makes less sense with each passing year.

Death penalty prosecutions are not infallible. Since 1973, 200 people nationwide have been exonerated and freed