Tell the Democratic Party: End Capital Punishment

The death penalty is an antiquated and ineffective punishment for criminals in the U.S. and the Democratic Party is considering trying to abolish it. The Democratic National Convention begins in just over a week on July 25th. In a draft of the party's platform it states:

"We will abolish the death penalty, which has proven to be a cruel and unusual form of punishment. It has no place in the United States of America."

Whether or not this will make it into the official platform remains to be seen as not everyone in the party agrees with this stance and it's all up for debate at the convention.

Sign this petition if you want to see the end of capital punishment endorsed fully by the Democratic Party at next week's convention.

Capital punishment is a barbaric stain on this nation's justice system. It does not deter crime, we have likely executed more than one innocent person and those punished to death often suffer greatly leading up to and during their death. It's time for this horrifying practice to be outlawed in our country forever.

Some politicians and prosecutors have endorsed the death penalty as a means to dissuade crime. But we know that whether or not the death penalty is a possibility has no bearing on crime statistics. Which means that inflicting the death penalty on someone is pure revenge and state sanctioned murder, not justice or an effective way to curb crime.

The finality of the death penalty is inexcusable when we have seen time and again that our justice system is imperfect and sometimes innocent folks end up on death row. Almost 1,500 people have been executed since capital punishment came back in 1976 after a 10-year moratorium. How many of them could have been innocent? If there is a chance that we executed even a single innocent person, we as a society should not be able to sleep at night.

Even when someone is sentenced to death, they often spend years on death row. Living in solitary confinement for years awaiting your murder is absolutely the kind of cruel and unusual punishment that the 8th amendment prohibits.

The means of execution has changed over the years as first hanging, then eventually gas chambers and firing squads were deemed cruel and unusual as the prisoner often did not die quickly or without pain.  Now the main means of execution is lethal injection. However, this is also an unreliable way to kill and executioners, who are rarely medical professionals, get it wrong all the time, causing the person to suffer great pain at the end of their life. The American Medical Association and other medical societies have public policies forbidding physicians and nurses from being involved as it goes against their creeds. This means that prison guards and other untrained and unequipped people are left to botch injections and make prisoners suffer greatly at the end of their lives.

This is the first time in the history of this nation that a major political party will officially call for the end of the barbaric punishment we still inflict upon citizens. But this will only happen if the idea can make it through the convention. Please sign this petition to let the Democratic Party know you support the end of capital punishment.

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