[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 19, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E45-E46]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         CALLING FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY

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                         HON. HALEY M. STEVENS

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 19, 2021

  Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to condemn the use of 
capital punishment in the United States and to call for its abolition.
  Capital punishment is an unjust and inhumane practice. It is past 
time we join developed democracies throughout the world and abolish 
this barbaric practice.
  The death penalty in the United States is deeply unfair and 
inequitable. It is a sentence disproportionately given to people of 
color, individuals with mental illness and the economically 
disadvantaged. Black people make up less than 13 percent of the 
nation's population while accounting for more than 42 percent of those 
on death row. And despite the Supreme Court ruling that intellectual 
disability lessens moral culpability, an estimated five to ten percent 
of all death row inmates suffer from a severe mental illness. The death 
penalty is also overwhelmingly imposed on poor people, with 95 percent 
of death row defendants from underprivileged backgrounds.
  The methods of execution used in the United States are unquestionably 
inhumane. States still allow people to be put to death by hanging, 
firing squad, electrocution and gas chamber. Although the recent 
adoption of lethal injection is purportedly more humane, recent botched 
executions have resulted in agonizing and prolonged deaths for 
individuals--undeniably a cruel and unusual punishment.
  As long as the death penalty exists, innocent individuals will be 
convicted and sentenced to death. Since 1973, 172 former

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death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the 
wrongful convictions that had put them on death row. We cannot continue 
to employ a system of punishment that has such a high risk of taking 
innocent life.
  The United States stands out among our allies and other democracies 
in its use of the death penalty. Many of our allies consider it a gross 
violation of human rights. Defending human rights abuses abroad has 
been a key pillar of U.S. foreign policy, but the continued use of the 
death penalty at home undermines our global standing and enables other 
countries to criticize other diplomatic efforts.
  Under the Trump Administration's Department of Justice, executions of 
federal death-row prisoners have recently resumed for the first time 
since 2003. In the midst of our current public health crisis, the 
Department of Justice has executed more people in six months than the 
total number executed over the previous six decades.
  Most Americans know that the death penalty does not represent justice 
in our country. It is cruel, inhumane, arbitrary and clearly 
discriminatory. It is time for us to finally abolish the death penalty.

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