Obama struggles with stance on the death penalty

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is making a hard case for overhauling the U.S. criminal justice system, but where he stands on the death penalty is unclear.

A shortage of lethal injection drugs has meant de facto freezes in several states and at the federal level.

Spurred in part by encouragement from Supreme Court justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, advocates are debating whether the time is right to push the court to take a fresh look at whether the death penalty is constitutional.

A solid majority — 61 percent — of the public supports the death penalty in murder cases, but that share has crept downward while opposition has inched up, according to a Gallup poll last month.

[...] hints have death penalty opponents likening Obama's deliberations to his gradual shift toward supporting gay marriage.

Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who taught the president, said: "Though not definitive, the idea that the president's views are evolving gives me hope that the he — like an increasing number of prosecutors, jurors, judges, governors and state legislators — recognizes that the death penalty in America is too broken to fix."