When Will the United States Abolish the Death Penalty?

By Olivia Luppino ‘22

On March 13, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, announced that he was placing a moratorium on the death penalty in his state. California currently has the most people on death row, with 737 people currently awaiting our nation’s “ultimate” punishment. It has executed 13 people since 1973, spending $5 billion in the process. 

Governor Newsom’s decision is seemingly at odds with the public opinion in his state; in both 2012 and 2016 Californians voted to uphold capital punishment. However, Newsom retains the right to make this executive order and asserts that he is acting in the state’s best interest. He insists that Californians must consider the moral implications of the issue and the harsh reality of signing off on the death of another person – a task that the governor is required to perform. 

The newly inaugurated governor has plenty of reasons for his moratorium, ranging from moral to practical ones. He has stressed the racial and class biases that play into convictions and condemns the system for its inequalities. In addition to framing the death penalty as a social justice issue, at the essence of Governor Newsom’s opposition is a philosophical debate about the perpetuation of violence against others. According to Governor Newsom, about 4% of people currently on death row were falsely convicted, including one California man who was recently exonerated after spending twenty-five years on death row. The risk of carrying out an execution of even one innocent person is, to him, unacceptable. 

Finally, Newsom has explained that if he were to sign off on each death, that would mean signing off on one death a day for over two years or one a week for fourteen years, allowing those hearing his ideas to consider the devastating reality of the government’s killing of its own people. The governor focuses on the difficulty of actually sentencing someone to die, especially given the way racism and classism impact these convictions and the fact that there are people currently falsely convicted on death row right now.

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Governor Newsom is only the latest person to highlight the already well-documented problems with the death penalty; many organizations have been detailing its flaws for years. The Equal Justice Initiative, a leading legal non-profit focused on mass incarceration, the death penalty and racial justice, affirms Newsom’s claim of the unequal impact of the death penalty on such communities. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, people of color account for 43% of total executions since 1976 and make up 55% of those currently on death row. Amnesty International describes the death penalty as “arbitrary and unfair” due to the link between the high cost legal counsel and lessening convictions. This is a well-documented phenomenon, but one that the American public still seems to be behind on, though Newsom’s executive order will push the public in a direction closer to abolishing the death penalty by bringing awareness to its flaws and showing that a state can do without it. 

Governor Newsom shows that the tides may be turning, no matter how slowly. Twenty states, including Connecticut, have already outlawed the death penalty, and 4 states currently have moratoriums on it like California. No democratic presidential candidates have come out in support of upholding the death penalty, and a few have even offered words of support after Governor Newsom’s executive order. In terms of the conservative stance on the death penalty, there is more variation. President Trump tweeted that he was “not thrilled” by Governor Newsom’s decision and has historically been in support of the death penalty. However, many recent criminal justice reforms, including death penalty reductions, have received bipartisan support at federal and local levels.

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Governor Newsom’s decision marks an important moment in U.S. debate over the death penalty. He has sped up a seemingly certain but slow trajectory. According to a Gallup poll, support for capital punishment has fallen from 80% in 1994 to 56% in 2018 (Gallup, Inc. 2018). Though the number still lies above the halfway mark, as education surrounding the issue increases and other political leaders take stands against the death penalty, people on both sides of the aisle have become more and more against it. 

Additionally, public perception that executions are determined fairly has dropped to an all-time low of 49% (Gallup, Inc. 2018). Many factors have contributed to this number, including clear instances of racial and class bias and the application of the death penalty on people with mental illnesses and children. Of course, people are also concerned with false convictions which have been increasingly identified with DNA testing technologies. Since the 1970s, 164 people have been exonerated for crimes that landed them on death row. Research has shown that the death penalty doesn’t even serve as a deterrent for crime either, negating an assumption that supporters of capital punishment lead with. 

In some cases, techniques used to carry out an execution have been so outrageous that many view it as a cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court even ruled in 1972 that it was unconstitutional for this reason, only to reverse that decision in 1976. As the court fills with more Trump appointees, however, Supreme Court restrictions on the death penalty could be moving backwards. On April 1, Neil Gorsuch overturned sixty years of precedent protecting those sentenced to the death penalty from receiving excessively painful deaths. 

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It appears the United States is moving toward eliminating the death penalty, no matter how slowly. Governor Newsom’s decision reignited the debate, and presidential candidates are ready to discuss it. Though the scales have not completely tipped, an increasing education on the unequal and ineffective nature of the death penalty continues to erode public support for it. Furthermore, as people grapple with what it actually means to sentence someone to death, many are finding this “punishment” too hard to stomach. The United States is far behind the two-thirds of the world’s countries that have already outlawed capital punishment, but it does not have to be for much longer, especially if leaders like Governor Newsom are willing to take a stand against the issue.

Works Cited

Gallup, Inc. “Death Penalty.” Gallup.com, news.gallup.com/poll/1606/death-penalty.aspx.