Do Not Give Ground on the Death Penalty

President Biden is the primary publicly anti-death penalty president to be elected on this nation. That’s not a small achievement. At the same time as this nation made progress in abolishing the dying penalty in earlier a long time, with particular person states selecting to repeal it and federal courts imposing moratoriums on the federal dying penalty for stretches of time, the nation constantly elected presidents who publicly supported the federal authorities knowingly and deliberately executing folks. President Biden’s election was an unlimited symbolic milestone, however the impression of that milestone is all of the sudden in query.

Final week, federal prosecutors introduced that they’d be pursuing the dying penalty in a felony case—the primary new capital prosecution since President Biden took workplace. Early within the administration, the U.S. Division of Justice imposed a moratorium on federal executions. Whereas we applauded the announcement on the time, we additionally raised concern from the get-go {that a} moratorium could possibly be lifted by a future administration that would instantly undertake one other execution spree like that carried out by the Trump administration. We additionally cautioned {that a} moratorium on executions doesn’t stop new federal dying sentences from being imposed, and that’s the state of affairs now. If Legal professional Common Garland has enough issues to impose a moratorium on executions, what sense does it make for his DOJ to pursue a prosecution that may solely add to the federal dying row’s inhabitants? Furthermore, if DOJ is prepared to pursue a brand new federal dying sentence, what’s to say they won’t pursue extra?

Opposition to the dying penalty is just not in regards to the particulars of anyone case, however the values of the federal government making use of it. Regardless of the details of any given case, our leaders both imagine that the felony authorized system’s use of state-sanctioned killings is flawed, or they don’t. Even within the summary, the dying penalty is unjust and undemocratic. It’s exponentially extra so whenever you issue within the realities of the American dying penalty and the racism that defines practically each part of a capital prosecution and sentence. By pursuing the dying penalty in a single case, once more whatever the details of that case, the federal authorities validates state-sanctioned killings as a coverage and a follow.

President Biden can not single handedly abolish the federal dying penalty. However he can have a significant symbolic impression by overseeing an administration that refuses to legitimize the dying penalty and that maintains a everlasting opposition to it. It takes a single case to undermine the ability of that symbolism and the progress made by the administration’s opposition till now. That is why we’re deeply dissatisfied to see the Division of Justice pursuing a brand new dying sentence.

As a rustic, we’re transferring slowly however absolutely in the direction of abolition. Eleven of the 23 states which have abolished the dying penalty have achieved so up to now 16 years. This contains states with Republican legislatures and/or governors. The Biden administration exemplified this momentum, sending a message to the states and to different international locations that the US is transferring in the correct route. The pursuit of the dying penalty in a single case doesn’t wipe out the impression of this nation electing the primary brazenly anti-death penalty president in its historical past, nevertheless it absolutely diminishes that impression.

President Biden nonetheless has time to strengthen his opposition to the dying penalty and make it a legacy of his presidency – by utilizing his constitutional authority to commute federal dying row. The Structure explicitly grants the President the authority to do that, with none position for Congress. Now greater than ever, it is crucial for President Biden to reaffirm his dedication to dying penalty abolition and to maneuver this nation decisively in that route, with out exceptions or caveats.