The death penalty is controversial. Critics recognize both that it’s racist, and that too many innocent people are unjustly killed - like Troy Davis, executed in 2011.
Black defendants are almost FOUR TIMES more likely to be sentenced to death than whites. We’re about 14% of the population of America, but make up over 40% of death row inmates.
And since the 1970s, over 13% of people executed - over 150 people - were later determined to be completely innocent!
We know that President Trump both supports the death penalty and is racist - remember his 1989 call for the deaths of the Central Park Five, young Black men who also turned out to be innocent?
For or against, nearly everyone agrees with the Constitution: the death penalty should not be unnecessarily “cruel.” Lethal injection is the current method because it’s often safer - but not always.
Even lethal injections can be “botched.” One death row inmate has a medical condition that makes lethal injection torture: “a gruesome execution… of excruciating pain.” But the Supreme Court is allowing it.
This decision was made possible by Trump’s latest addition to the Court, Brett Kavanaugh.
If the death penalty is necessary - and there’s plenty of evidence it isn’t - it shouldn’t be TORTURE - especially when we know how racist and unjust it can be in the first place.