The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

assign the topic of capital punishment in almost every opinion-writing class I teach at The Johns Hopkins University. Most of my students, being incurably liberal, toe the anti-death penalty line: capital punishment is racist and cruel (as if a death sentence was meant to be benign). As so many American college students feel that way, perhaps it was inevitable that bashing the U.S. on the death penalty issue would eventually become a cottage industry in other parts of the world. So I can’t say I was surprised when one of my students told of his experiences in Spain during a recent visit. It seems the Spaniards O C T O B E R 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 39 T HE PICTURE MANY FOREIGNERS HAVE OF A MERICA AS A RECKLESS , GUN - TOTIN ’, COWBOY NATION THAT HANDS OUT THE DEATH PENALTY WILLY - NILLY IS A FALSE ONE . B Y G REG K ANE F O C U S O N D I P L O M A C Y & T H E D E A T H P E N A L T Y I T HE M YTH OF THE C OWBOY Adam Niklewicz