End the death penalty in Missouri!

Earlier this year, the Missouri House Corrections Committee heard a bill that would end the death penalty in Missouri. This is the first time in several years that this bill has had a full hearing in front of a legislative committee. We are excited at our progress! Now we need your help to get us to the next step.

We are asking Missourians to contact their legislator to let them know they support ending the death penalty. It only takes a minute or two to make your voice heard.

We need to tell legislators that the death penalty is not an effective response to violence. Not only does the death penalty fail to deter crime, but it takes precious tax-payer dollars away from more effective programs that have actually been shown to make our communities safer.

As long as we have a death penalty, there will always be a risk of executing an innocent person. At least 200 men and women have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in this country, including four in Missouri. Some innocent people have undoubtedly been executed. What's more, capital punishment is disproportionately used against America's most vulnerable populations, including individuals with severe mental illnesses, intellectual disabilities, brain injuries, and long histories of childhood trauma and abuse, as well as youthful offenders.

The death penalty is applied in an arbitrary and often biased manner, determined primarily by inappropriate factors, such as what county the crime is committed in, the ability of the defendant to obtain and pay for a qualified attorney, and the race and economic status of the victims, instead of the nature of the crime. In America, two identical crimes that take place just miles apart will frequently result in completely different sentences depending on the whims of the local prosecutor.

Every year we get closer to our goal of ending the death penalty in Missouri!