Carl M. Cannon

About the author: Carl M. Cannon is the White House correspondent for National Journal and president of the White House Correspondents Association.

Execution is a seemingly moral and just punishment for those who commit felony murder. However, in recent years, several death-row prisoners have escaped execution after postconviction DNA evidence proved that they were innocent. Such cases reveal the unreliability of the judicial branch of government and call into question the legitimacy of capital punishment as it is administered in the United States. Since it has been proven that a certain percentage of condemned inmates are actually innocent, the death penalty should be abolished.

At a dinner party in Georgetown during the Reagan years, I was seated next to a liberal journalist I didn't know...