{"id":25002,"date":"2023-02-02T10:54:34","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T18:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=25002"},"modified":"2023-02-02T10:54:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T18:54:36","slug":"the-death-penalty-in-the-us-how-it-works-and-why-we-need-to-abolish-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/02\/02\/the-death-penalty-in-the-us-how-it-works-and-why-we-need-to-abolish-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The Death Penalty in the US: How It Works and Why We Need to Abolish It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Politics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This op-ed argues that the death penalty is a racist, cruel policy that leads to the most vulnerable Americans being executed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY <\/strong>PALIKA MAKAM<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JANUARY 27, 2023 (teenvogue.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protesters who have stood up to the Iranian government and the \u201cmorality\u201d police are being killed by the state. The New York Times<\/em> reported that Iran has so far sentenced 15 protesters to death<\/a>, and two people were already hanged in December. That same month, at the United Nations General Assembly, a record high of 125 nations voted to support a global moratorium on the death penalty. Noticeably absent from the affirmative vote for another year? The United States, along with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea and Vietnam, voted no to a moratorium on the death penalty. Once again, the United States has chosen blood over life.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a digital strategist and storyteller working within the movement to abolish the death penalty here in the United States, the recent vote comes as no surprise, sadly. I\u2019ve seen over and over how our country touts the cruel, racist, inhumane, and ineffective use of death as punishment \u2014 rather, death as a form of justice. But if killing people and throwing money at prisons made us safer, wouldn\u2019t we be the safest country in the world<\/a>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

True crime series and pop culture have led us to believe that the death penalty is reserved for \u201cthe worst of the worst,\u201d but in reality, it’s not just serial killers and cartoonish villains sitting on death row. Instead, disproportionately it is members of our country\u2019s most vulnerable populations who are being executed:<\/a> victims of abuse, Black and brown people, and those from poor communities. People with intellectual impairments, brain damage, and severe mental illness are also at greater risk of wrongful conviction<\/a> because they are more likely to make a false confession, less able to aid in their own defense, and often make less compelling witnesses. These are the people being killed in our names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s past time we reassess how we prioritize punishment over people in the United States and across the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The death penalty is racist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The death penalty is inextricably linked to a not-so-distant past of public lynchings of Black people in the US. As public lynchings began to decline in the beginning of the 20th century, state-sanctioned executions behind prison walls started to increase<\/a>. Lawmakers nationwide justified these rampant and racist killings by claiming it was a better alternative to the inevitable violence white community members would inflict on their Black neighbors. As explained by Noose to Needle<\/a>, an educational platform dedicated to highlighting the racist history of the death penalty in America, \u201cThe death penalty is the modern incarnation of hundreds of years of racial control that began with slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being less than 13% of the population today, Black people account for 42% of people on death row<\/a>, according to a 2020 report from the Death Penalty Information Center. Studies have suggested the odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times higher if the defendant is Black<\/a> than if they are white \u2014 and the death penalty is also used much more frequently when the victim is white<\/a>. In some states, like Louisiana, no white person has ever been executed for the killing of a Black person.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may no longer be deemed appropriate to hang Black people in public spaces (though it can easily be argued that police killings of Black people in broad daylight are an iteration of public lynchings<\/a>). But whether a noose or a needle<\/a>, in America, executions have always been steeped in racism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The death penalty can actually harm victims<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“When my brother was murdered I thought I was supposed to support the death penalty.\u2026 Little did me and my family know then that when Michael Ryan was sentenced to death, we were sentenced too. Our sentence has been going on for 20 years and there has been no execution. For 20 years it has been all about Michael Ryan. He is all my family and I ever hear about. Jim is never mentioned\u2026. Having seen what the death penalty has done to my family, I have since changed my mind and now think it should be abolished.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014<\/em> Miriam Thimm Kelle, collected by Equal Justice USA for A Failure for Victims\u2019 Families in Their Own Words: Stories of a Broken System<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most detrimental narrative I\u2019ve encountered in this work is that the death penalty is an apparatus designed in service of victims. But victims are not a monolith, and serving them means listening to the breadth of their needs and demands instead of continuing to ignore their stories or using them as \u201ctough on crime\u201d political fodder. True justice for victims of violence means supporting their efforts to pass legislation on violence prevention, such as gun control<\/a>, especially since there\u2019s no evidence to show that the death penalty actually deters crimes<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice also means investing in services that support healing for victims and their families, including grief counseling, mental and physical health services, and financial assistance. Instead, the death penalty consistently diverts millions of dollars<\/a> (an even higher cost than life without parole<\/a>) and attention that could be spent on these campaigns and other critical services, unnecessarily dragging victims through a lengthy and agonizing legal process that can last decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death penalty cases go through years of constitutionally mandated appeals that are required only when execution is being sought. This means that victims and their families are forced to revisit the most traumatic moments of their lives over and over again with little to no support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every execution creates new victims<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many victims\u2019 family members<\/a> and even prison guards<\/a> have shared that the death penalty produces a significant amount of collateral damage<\/a>. Every execution requires a team to carry out the killing: tying down a person to a gurney, strapping them to a chair, escorting them to a gas chamber, administering a lethal injection, firing a gun, and so on. There are real people left to deal with botched executions or forced to witness a human being writhing in pain as they take their last breaths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corrections officials have committed suicide<\/a>, suffered prolonged mental and physical health problems, and experienced substance abuse<\/a> as a result of their involvement in executions. Jurors who serve on death penalty trials report experiencing prolonged periods of distress; journalists who witness executions experience anxiety<\/a>, nausea, and nightmares; and even judges have pinpointed<\/a> death penalty trials as their reason for leaving the profession. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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