Read on Twitter
This account has 15 followers, so I'm reluctant to amplify their message, but they just followed me and I'm really bothered by their arguments, so I'm going to respond. Follow along if you like. https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1247166169695408129
In the United States, the death penalty may only be employed in cases where the victim is killed. It's true that family members and loved ones of the victim may experience trauma, but the actual victim is dead in 100% of modern capital cases. https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1247164367424151552
Research studies overwhelmingly show that capital punishment does not serve as a deterrent against violent crime. The murder rate in the US has declined over the last 20 years, in which use of the death penalty declined.
https://www.amnestyusa.org/a-clear-scientific-consensus-that-the-death-penalty-does-not-deter/ https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1247166374759116801
https://www.amnestyusa.org/a-clear-scientific-consensus-that-the-death-penalty-does-not-deter/ https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1247166374759116801
"Retribution sometimes correlates with justice" is still pretty generous.
To paraphrase Aristotle, "Law is reason free from passion."
Satisfying lust for revenge, while a natural human emotion, is incompatible with the foundations of our justice system. https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1247166569068683264
To paraphrase Aristotle, "Law is reason free from passion."
Satisfying lust for revenge, while a natural human emotion, is incompatible with the foundations of our justice system. https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1247166569068683264
It is more expensive to execute someone than to incarcerate them. The argument below says we could save money by eliminating appeals--but 10% of all people sent to death row have later been proven innocent and exonerated on appeal. https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1247170231304323072
It's quite true that family members of murder victims experience emotional trauma. The death penalty forces them to relive it with each appeal, dragging a case out for decades--which is why many victim family members oppose the death penalty. https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1248406356328976385
Many murder victim family members, incidentally, also say they don't consider it justice for the state to respond to a murder by murdering someone else. They don't want blood on their hands.
Other victim family members disagree, of course, which is their right.
Other victim family members disagree, of course, which is their right.
Capital cases have little to do with "violent crime," and much more to do with race, class, and capacity. Almost every person sent to death row is impoverished, and often suffer mental illness or intellectual disability--and most are Black men. https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1248407298948517889
The most common scenario leading to death is a Black man killing a white woman. Years ago an organization I work with did a research project to determine how many white men had gone to death row in the US for killing Black men.
The answer: Zero. It has never happened.
The answer: Zero. It has never happened.
I've now responded to every tweet in that feed. I'd encourage you to vote in their poll. And Lauren and Dive, if you're reading this, I'd encourage you to reconsider your premises and change your mind. There is no justice in the death penalty. https://twitter.com/shistoryproject/status/1248689042033643522
What the death penalty really is, is a legal method by which states could continue lynching after the practice was outlawed. It is fundamentally immoral, and in practice it is racist, useless, flawed beyond repair, and subjects survivors to undue trauma. It needs to end.
