DEATH PENALTY WARNINGS.(MAIN)(Editorial)

When he was campaigning for governor eight years ago, then-candidate George Pataki struck a responsive chord with many New Yorkers in calling for a return to the death penalty. Since then, however, there have been good reasons for politicians everywhere, and the public, to pause.

One recent example: Last week, Ray Krone of Arizona became the nation's 12th death row inmate to be cleared by DNA testing, and the 100th inmate since 1973 either to be freed or granted a new trial after having been sentenced to death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Those statistics are chilling. So is the grim fact that Mr. Krone had to spend 10 years in an Arizona prison …