Move over economic crisis. The death penalty could become a top issue in the final days leading up to New York's special election to fill U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's former seat in the House of Representatives.
Democratic venture capitalist Scott Murphy revealed his opposition to the death penalty -- even for terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks -- this week in an interview with New York Post columnist Fred Dicker.
Public sentiment in the country mostly favors the death penalty, especially in the 20th Congressional District, an upstate district north of New York City.
Murphy is vying against Republican State Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco in the March 31 election. Both campaigns have said the economic crisis and Capitol Hill's response has been the defining issue so far. But with Murphy stating his controversial position on the death penalty, Tedisco has already tried to seize on it.
"Scott Murphy's opposition to the death penalty, even for terrorists like those who murdered nearly 3,000 of our fellow Americans on Sept. 11 was a shocking, stunning and deeply troubling revelation," Tedisco said Saturday in a statement.
"Murphy doesn't believe Osama bin Laden deserves the death penalty?" he added. "That fact shows Murphy doesn't understand or share Upstate's values. Unlike Murphy, I support the death penalty for all terrorists."
Murphy told Dicker it's a tough issue.
"I think we so often deal with cases where the evidence may not be totally conclusive, and we can't prove beyond any shadow of a doubt," he said. "And the cost is just not accurate for it."
Murphy's campaign stood by his comments after the interview.
"Scott respects that people have deeply held beliefs about the death penalty," Murphy spokesman Ryan Rudominer said in a statement. "He is against it. Scott was in New York City on 9/11 and understands the horrors of that day."
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