Worldwide, the trend has been against the death penalty. More and more nations have abolished it. Some nations that still retain their laws allowing the death penalty have stopped using it.
The UK’s Amnesty International published a report at the end of 2017 that death sentences and actual executions are both DECLINING in the world: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/report-executions-death-penalty-2017?utm_campaign=MEMA1645_UPD_DPEN_Death%20penalty%20report&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Campaigns&utm_content=1097
American public opinion is turning against the death penalty! More states have abolished the death penalty — or have stopped using it without repealing their laws.
A 2017 public opinion poll showed U.S. support for the death penalty is the lowest since 1972. See this article: http://news.gallup.com/poll/221030/death-penalty-support-lowest-1972.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication
Another 2017 article provides 87 Reasons to Rethink the Death Penalty. Execution was meant for the worst of the worst. Research shows that’s far from the reality. See this article: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/supreme-court-death-penalty-execution
This article from the end of 2017 showed executions and new death sentences hit historic low in the U.S. in 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/13/us-death-sentences-executions-2017
An early 2018 report show s MOST Americans favor Life Without Parole (LWOP) instead of the death penalty. A Quinnipiac University poll found that American voters choose life without parole over the death penalty 51-37 percent, the first time a majority chose life over death since the poll first asked the question in 2004. See information here: https://deathpenalty.org/blog/the-focus/new-poll-finds-majority-favor-lwop-death-penalty/
In 2018 and 2019 the Trump regime took actions to bring back the federal death penalty. Decent people are opposing that.
In 2018 Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions urged MORE federal executions: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/11/1731914/-Sessions-s-latest-instruction-to-DOJ-Seek-the-death-penalty?detail=emaildkre
Trump replaced AG Sessions for not being blindly loyal to Trump, and his new AG — William Barr — is likewise a strong supporter of the death penalty. In 2019 Trump and Barr decided to reinstate the federal death penalty in the U.S. after 16 years without federal executions. AG Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to resume capital punishment, beginning with the executions of five men later in 2019.
But people pushed back in several ways. A non-profit organization reported this:
“Scientists and other experts continue to agree that the death penalty has no deterrent effect on crimes. States without the death penalty continue to have significantly lower murder rates than those that retain capital punishment, which means it only serves to be an inhumane, simplistic, expensive and retributive punishment.
“Capital punishment is deeply flawed. Apart from it not acting as a deterrent, the U.S. criminal justice system is broken and rigged against the poor and people of color. It’s also more expensive than alternative sentences, and diverts resources from genuine crime control measures.
“Even worse, a 2014 study by researchers from Michigan and Pennsylvania found that at least 4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the U.S. in the modern era are innocent.”
SIGN THIS PETITION: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/168/543/824/u.s.-federal-government-to-use-death-penalty-again/?z00m=31851051&redirectID=2959554269
The Trump administration is wrong to bring back federal executions: https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/trump-administration-wrong-to-bring-back-federal-executions?utm_source=weekendreading080319&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekendreading
Sister Helen Prejean comments on Trump/Barr return to federal death penalty. Watch this portion of an August 2019 Democracy Now! broadcast and/or read the transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/14/sister_helen_prejean_federal_death_penalty
In November 2019 a federal court blocked pending federal executions:
A reliable source reported that a U.S. district judge stopped four federal executions scheduled for Dec. 2019 and Jan. 2020. Those would have been the first executions by the federal government after a 16-year period with no federal executions. The court’s decision, although subject to appeal, prevents the federal government from resuming the practice of executing its citizens and perpetuating a culture of death. Several news articles from November 2019 provide more information