Horrible news: Attorney General William Barr has decided the federal government
will once again execute people after 20 years of not doing so. But we know that the death penalty doesn't deter future crimes, it only serves to be an inhumane, simplistic, expensive and retributive punishment.
Please sign on if you don't want to U.S. Government to resume using capital punishment!There are a few issues with using the death penalty. One is that it doesn't act a deterrent for crimes anymore than a life sentence in prison does. Another is that our criminal justice system is absolutely broken and rigged against poor folks and people of color. And last but not least, if the state murders people, what makes our society better than the people within who commit heinous crimes?
There are currently 62 people on federal death row, that's 62 families who are already suffering and who do not deserve to lose this person who they probably have complicated feelings about. Not to mention, statistically, at least some of these people are actually not guilty of the crime they are imprisoned for. Innocent people have absolutely been executed by the state. And,
executions have been botched such that the victim suffers immensely, the most recent
being in 2014.
A lot of people believe the death penalty is cheaper than a life sentence, but
that's actually not true. And although you might be tempted to believe the death penalty is the only way to get victim's families closure and ensure a murderer, for example, is never released from prison, but that's also not accurate.
This change from Attorney General William Barr is despicable and we must speak out against it.