WI Willie Horton dies before committing his Maryland crimes?

As we all know, Michael Dukakis continued the program of giving out furloughs to any prisoner. One of them was Willie Horton, who, one weekend, traveled all the way to Maryland and committed rape and attempted murder. This was part of the reason for the tough-on-crime movement.

So, WI Willie Horton, the weekend he goes to Maryland, is hit by a bus and dies instead?

Effects, anyone?
 
The real Willie Horton - the baseball player - is better remembered. Dukakis loses because he didn’t campaign worth a shit and his defeat signals to any active candidate to go all-in on it.
 
Yeah, when you employ the brilliant strategy of hiring Susan Estrich (@Andrew T once brought up her deficiencies in a post) and deciding not to respond to Bush's attacks, well, maybe you don't deserve to win...
 
It may not have saved Dukakis but lets look at the bigger picture. Without this crime being committed, allot more Americans would probably have been open to the idea of Capital punishment being abolished. I mean just think about it for a second, Bill Clinton partly in reaction to how Horton card destroyed Dukakis really consolidated the Democratic party in supportive of capital punishment for a few decades. Without this, it is unlikely that ever would have happened. Instead, America, and indeed many states might be on the track to ending the death penalty.
 
Top