The Death Penalty in the US: How It Works and Why We Need to Abolish It

Teen Vogue, January 27, 2023: The Death Penalty in the US: How It Works and Why We Need to Abolish It

“Protesters who have stood up to the Iranian government and the ‘morality’ police are being killed by the state. The New York Times reported that Iran has so far sentenced 15 protesters to death, 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.

“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’ve seen over and over how our country touts the cruel, racist, inhumane, and ineffective use of death as punishment — rather, death as a form of justice. But if killing people and throwing money at prisons made us safer, wouldn’t we be the safest country in the world?

“True crime series and pop culture have led us to believe that the death penalty is reserved for ‘the worst of the worst,’ but in reality, it's not just serial killers and cartoonish villains sitting on death row. Instead, disproportionately it is members of our country’s most vulnerable populations who are being executed: 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 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.

“It’s past time we reassess how we prioritize punishment over people in the United States and across the globe.”

Additional reading:

8th Amendment Project: From Noose to Needle: The Racist History of the Death Penalty

Equal Justice USA: A Failure for Victims’ Families: In their own words: Stories of a broken system

NPR, November 16, 2022: Carrying out executions took a secret toll on workers — then changed their politics