Additionally, factors such as discrimination against low-income individuals, failures to acknowledge individuals’ histories of abuse or disability statuses, and other forms of systemic inequities in our criminal legal system more broadly further engrain and entrench the worst parts of this system in its resultant death penalty decisions.

population is Black, 20 of the 49 individuals remaining on federal death row – or 41 percent – are African American.

For example, while just 13 percent of the U.S. Still today, stark racial disparities in the application of capital punishment exists. Throughout history, African Americans have been routinely put to death for offenses for which white individuals received lesser punishments, were more likely to be executed as juveniles, and were less likely to have their death sentence convictions reviewed by higher courts than were their white counterparts. Moreover, the use of the death penalty continues to perpetuate patterns of racial and economic oppression endemic to the American criminal legal system. The only way to eliminate the possibility of executing an innocent person is to do away with the punishment altogether. Since 1973, more than 170 individuals have been sentenced to death and exonerated on innocence grounds, demonstrating the high propensity for error in our criminal legal system and the unfathomable consequences that may follow. A cruel and unusual punishment, the death penalty fails to comport with either the 8th or 14th Amendments and violates our obligations under international law. Such state-sanctioned killing is not only inhumane, but in deep conflict with many of our country’s most fundamental democratic principles and civil rights protections. Dustin John Higgs, “to put that in historical context, the Federal Government will have executed more than three times as many people in the last six months than it had in the previous six decades.” In a period already marked by significant loss, as more than 419,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, as well as protest against a criminal legal system that systemically harms communities of color, the expediency with which the Trump administration raced to implement these executions while failing to take necessary action to protect individuals during the pandemic – and especially incarcerated individuals such as the 14 people on federal death row who became ill with the virus – is particularly disgraceful. As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in her dissent in United States v. While initially delayed over just six months, former President Donald Trump’s Justice Department hurriedly moved to execute thirteen individuals – Daniel Lee, Wesley Purkey, Dustin Honken, Lezmond Mitchell, Keith Nelson, William LeCroy, Jr., Christopher Vialva, Orlando Hall, Brandon Bernard, Alfred Bourgeois, Lisa Montgomery, Corey Johnson, and Dustin Higgs – just before the end of his presidency. If we are to truly forge a nation as good as its ideals, the federal government must take swift action to commute the sentences of those currently under federal sentence of death and end the government’s cruel, ineffective, and irreversible use of the death penalty.Ĭoalition Letter to Biden re Death Penalty Executive Actionsįor seventeen years, the federal government took a hiatus from federal executions until, in July 2019, the Trump administration announced a new lethal injection protocol and with it, the intention to resume federal executions. Any criminal legal system truly dedicated to the pursuit of justice should recognize the humanity of all those who come into contact with it, not sanction the use of a discriminatory practice that denies individuals their rights, fails to respect their dignity, and stands in stark contrast to the fundamental values of our democratic system of governance. On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect civil and human rights in the United States, and the 82 undersigned organizations, we write to urge you to act on your promise of ensuring equality, equity, and justice in our criminal legal system by immediately commuting the sentences of all individuals under federal sentence of death, and reinstating the federal moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Dustin higgs innocent