Since Hawai'i has no death penalty law, many in this state may look on the debate over capital punishment as an academic issue of little importance here.

That's simply not true.

First, there is always the possibility — albeit unlikely — that someone will launch a serious effort to reinstate the death penalty in the Islands.

And Hawai'i does have the death penalty in the sense that federal crimes under federal jurisdiction are subject to capital punishment.

Yet anyone with an interest in this topic should note carefully recent remarks by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens during an appearance in Chicago.

Stevens, by now the most liberal member of the Supreme Court, repeated criticism of the death penalty, but in specific and focused ways.

Noting that there have been many instances of capital convictions overturned through DNA or other evidence, Stevens said it is dangerous for society to impose this ultimate sanction.

But beyond that, he said the very nature of capital trials work against the interests of the defendant. The natural desire for retribution, he noted, makes it tough for jurors or elected judges to resolve issues in favor of the defendant.

Jury selection tends to weed out those with objections or even doubts about the death penalty, he said.

This creates, Stevens argued, a situation in which jurors are "likely to assume that their primary task is to determine the penalty for a presumptively guilty defendant."

Some critics have said that the cure to the problems cited by Stevens lies in fewer preemptory challenges for jurors, reforming the impact of victim statements before jurors who are in the penalty phase and greater forensic use of DNA testing early in the criminal process.

These may be useful changes. But ultimately, the cure for these dreadful prospects is to declare the death penalty unconstitutional.

The United States is among a handful of advanced nations that retains the death penalty for civilian criminal cases.

It is time to do away with it.