Featured Idea: End the Federal Death Penalty

The Ideas for Change campaign is gaining some serious steam, thanks to all of your ideas and your votes. We're seeing thousands of ideas submitted from around the world, and they are getting tens of thousands of votes. Help us spread the word by submitting more ideas and sending your favorite ideas to your friends. If we keep this pace, we'll have solid recommendations - with strong support from the public and from nonprofit partners - to send to President Obama and Congress in January.

For today's featured idea, I was planning to highlight Benjamin Charles' 'End Capital Punishment Nationwide'. But I want to make sure the ideas we send to the next administration are achievable. The death penalty is a state-by-state policy in the U.S., so it is unlikely that Obama can do much to end executions nationwide, other than appointing compassionate and fair-minded Supreme Court justices. He can, however, declare a moratorium on federal executions. He can commute all death row inmates to life sentences. So I posted a new idea. Yes, today's featured idea is my own. But I owe a big thank you to Mr. Charles for getting the ball rolling here.

Please vote today for my idea: Declare a Moratorium on the Federal Death Penalty.

President-elect Obama can send a message to the states, and to other countries around the world, that America no longer supports expensive, arbitrary, vigilante justice. The death penalty is almost always reserved for poor defendants who can't afford lawyers, and it can't go on like this. It's time for compassion in our criminal justice system, and a moratorium from the top would be a great start.

Thanks for voting.