John

Americans are leaving behind their support for the death penalty. A 2023 Gallup poll showed that, for the first time ever, more Americans say the death penalty is administered unfairly than fairly, by 50% to 47%.

Despite this gradual shift in the zeitgeist, executions in the United States are seeing a dramatic resurgence. In just one week, five inmates were put to death or scheduled to be in Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and Oklahoma. This is the largest number of executions in one week since the late 1990’s.

There are huge inequities in how the death penalty is carried out. It is inhumane, expensive, and biased toward the execution of inmates of color and those with low incomes. It has a negative moral impact on those who conduct it, and the society that condones it. Moreover, if it turns out a convicted person was not guilty, a completed execution can not be reversed.

Recently, Missouri executed Marcellus Williams over the objections of prosecutors, the victim’s family, and some jurors, who alleged the trial had not been handled properly. Meanwhile, Alabama’s execution team leader Lt. Brandon McKenzie, who frequently has a direct hands-on role in the state’s executions, was accused of smashing one prisoner’s head through a window.

The death penalty is biased against people of color, people with disabilities, and those in rural and low-income communities. Tell Congress: Abolish the death penalty now!

The death penalty can never be administered fairly in a system where the rich have access to better legal representation. Convicts on death row are more likely to be Black, poor, and to have mental illness or mental disabilities than others who have been convicted of similar crimes. Further, the death penalty is more frequently imposed when the victims are white.

Whether a person is convicted, given the death penalty, or ultimately executed is a game of chance, depending on a combination of race, poverty, place, and politics.

Every execution raises the question of what exactly constitutes “cruel” and “unusual” punishment. Surely, no matter how the execution is carried out, the intentional premeditated infliction of death on a person is cruel. It’s strangely ironic that we search for humane methods of execution, when in fact the execution itself is a deeply inhumane act.

We have ample evidence to show the death penalty is expensive and ineffective. By the time all appeals are made, a single execution costs far more than the cost of life imprisonment. On top of this, multiple studies over many years have not shown any deterrent effects on crime. But the death penalty does have a negative moral impact on us, when we carry it out.

The death penalty is flawed, unjust, and discriminatory. It has no place in a just society. Tell Congress: Ban the use of the death penalty now.

Thank you for fighting for a just justice system.

- DFA AF Team