After a 17 year hiatus, the U.S. Department of Justice carried out thirteen executions between July 15, 2020 and January 15, 2021- an unprecedented pace. These made president Trump the most-executing president since the 1950's.

Executions do not keep society any safer from dangerous offenders than incarceration. We can do much better for the families of murder victims than the hollow promise of a possible execution decades in the future.

We are urging Congress to abolish the federal death penalty.

Background:

Many problems exist with federal, military and state death penalty laws. These issues are explored in great detail, here. Death Penalty Action believes the death penalty is not necessary to be safe from dangerous offenders or to hold them accountable. In an era where support for capital punishment is waning and states are abolishing the punishment, calling for more executions is political rhetoric intended to win support from particular voting blocks.

Most alarming, evidence came to light after the July 14, 2020 execution of Daniel Lee that the campaign to reelect Donald Trump has guided the strategy and timing of this spate of federal executions. Read about this in the Terre Haute Tribune Star report. Further evidence is currently being developed.

Lastly, on August 26, 2020, the U.S. Government executed Lezmond Mitchell, the only American Indian on the federal Death Row. The U.S. government found a way to circumvent tribal agreements in order to do so, adding one more reason for Congress to end federal executions immediately.

Action Steps:

Please join us in asking congress to take the following steps:

• Address pervasive and systemic racism in the criminal legal system by ending the federal death penalty;
• Remove the power of the president to use executions for his own political purposes by passing the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act, legislation to end the federal and military death penalty;
• Close the legal loophole that allowed the federal government to override the Navajo Nation's stated desire that Lezmond Mitchell not face execution.

Add your name to the petition to tell Congress and send a signal to the administration: The death penalty is not an effective tool to stop crime. Government makes mistakes, the criminal justice system is fraught with disparity and unfairness, prison workers should not be forced to take on the burden of killing defenseless prisoners once let alone at the rapid pace of the current federal execution schedule, and it is a cruel hoax to suggest that executions provide healing to murder victim family members.

NOTE: The information in this background and the asks within the deliverable petition language may be adjusted from time to time to keep them current as to information presented and appropriateness of requests being made. Petition signatures will be regularly submitted to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, and may also be carried over to the next term of congress or used in support of similar legislation in keeping with the spirit of this petition.