The Republican National Committee on Monday released an ad against Hillary Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine for his record on the death penalty, just a day before the vice presidential debate.
The video cited decades-old criminal cases to suggest that Kaine is soft on crime, that he “consistently protected the worst kind of people” from capital punishment, and worked to avoid executions of criminals while he was governor of Virginia.
The ad included two early examples from his early career as a young defense attorney, when he represented two men who brutally sexually assaulted and murdered women. Richard Lee Whitley was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting an elderly neighbor and Lem Tuggle was found guilty of raping, sodomizing, and murdering a woman. Both were later executed in their respective Virginia prisons.
It also cited the widely publicized case of convicted double murderer Jens Soering. Kaine attempted to send the son of a German diplomat back to his home country, where instead of spending a lifetime in prison he would have been eligible for parole in two years.
Kaine’s successors Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell and current Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe both prevented the transfer from taking place.
Kaine has said previously that he chose to defend people who faced the death penalty out of a sense of moral obligation inspired by his Catholic faith. He has also admitted his opposition to the death penalty while he was governor.
“The hardest thing about being a governor was dealing with the death penalty,” Kaine said in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter. “I hope on Judgment Day that there’s both understanding and mercy, because it was tough.”
Though the economy and terrorism are campaign centerpieces this election cycle, the death penalty gained renewed attention when the Democratic National Convention delegates voted to abolish it from their platform in July. Unlike Kaine, Hillary Clinton has not entirely ruled out the use of the punishment in certain cases.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has positioned himself as the “law and order” candidate, pledging last year that he would issue an executive order mandating capital punishment for police killers. According to a September Pew Research Center poll, public support for the punishment is at a four-decade low.
