Why hasn't Obama spoken out on capital punishment?

Politics is generally about what is possible. As various wannabe Confederates and other loons have pointed out, abolishing capital punishment across the USA would involve a constitutional amendment, and given that so much of the US electorate is high on cordite smoke, mad Abrahamic cults, sadistic films and racist latrine rumour, the likelihood of such an amendment taking the US into the company of civilised nations is not that great at present.

I have little doubt that Obama, like most American graduate professionals, would personally like to see state murder abolished. Perhaps he thinks, as many in Europe do, that the US is actually less ready for democracy than it was in 1784, and that the wellbeing of the people might perhaps be better served by a well-educated, cultured and civilised modern aristocracy running the show than by the sort of local populists and demagogues who like executions, because they curry favour with their barbarian electorate!

Because captial punishment is outlawed by the European Convention on Human Rights, and Mr Obama would be constrained by that if he was a European. As he is not European he is free to permit people to be killed within his own country.

If the citizens don't like it then they are free to elect a president who is anti-execution. If the electorate persist in electing leaders who support public gun ownership and state executions then they should not complain about one man. If the citizens feel that they have no control over the candidates because of the over-complex and expensive electoral system then perhaps the time has come for a change. If enough of you voted for a "non killing" independant candiate then the vested interests of your ruling elite would have to pay attention.

That is called democracy.

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because almost everyone convicted and sentenced for murder is by state court, not federal. so it is not a matter that can be address by federal law directly. only if death penalty was viewed to violate the constitution could the federal courts take any action, and so far the Supreme Court has not found any such connection. it has returned a few specific conviction sentences back to the states on very narrow grounds. it would be possible for Obama to commute the death sentence for one convicted for federal charges, but i don't think such a case has ever come up outside of military courts martial.

Because that's MORE of a "States Rights" issue- than a Federal One. And the President can only Do just so MUCH, -where Those are Concerned anyway... :(

Because he's a capitalist centrist and therefore content with the status quo as each state of the union decides it.

Now that wasn't hard, was it?

Why would he? He is perfectly ok with assassinating US citizens without so much as a trial.

He's worried about how inept Putin is making him look.

No reason for him to.

He has.

He supports it.