Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, is going to try to reinstate the death penalty. While he probably won't have much success, you can't blame the guy for trying. Romney is carefully wording the bill so that it will appeal more to Massachusetts liberals who are usually soft on criminals.

...the bill would limit capital punishment to the "worst of the worst" crimes including terrorism, the murder of police officers, murder involving torture and the killing of witnesses.

Now, the state sponsored killing of rapists and murderers usually makes me feel all warm and tingly inside, and I usually support our hard working boys in blue. But why is it that killing a police officer is considered worse than killing a regular Joe. I understand that the police do a thankless and necessary job, but their murder doesn't seem any worse than that of the guy standing behind the counter at the Quickie Mart. At least the cops have guns and can fight back. A lot of the other innocent victims are sitting ducks.