Pope Francis He has called for exchanges of people on death row in the US, as religious leaders, civil rights groups and current and former prosecutors urge; Joseph Biden to executive action in capital punishment.
On his Sunday to prayPope Francis, who was a vocal opponent of the death penalty; he said: “My heart comes to ask you all to pray for the prisoners in the United States of America who are on death row. We pray that their opinion will be changed [or] changed “
On Monday, advocates fighting the death penalty sent a letter to 100 leaders asking the president to clear the federal death row. Donald Trump He returns to office, with pleas from Black pastors, Catholic leaders, former prison officials, civil rights groups and mental health advocates.
Biden is up against it and increasing pressure to give mercy to people on death sentences after he recently announced that he had used executive authority I will forgive my son.
lawyers I expect the incoming administration to be deadly if Biden does not act. During Trump’s first term last year, the US government executed 13 people in rapid succession, killing more people in the federal system than under the previous 10 presidents combined. Process attack requested He forbade the defendants to present the souls of men with intellectual defects new thatand execution methods advocates he said they were “twisted.”
Some of Trump’s first-term execution was done notwithstanding objections by prosecutors and victims, and after the US Supreme Court quickly prevailed, the lower courts’ decisions are crippling the issue.
The Catholic Mobilizing Network, which represents 30,000 advocates, including bishops and dioceses, urged Biden, who is Catholic, to replace all death orders with federal sentences, writing: “We know that federal death orders, like those in states, are worrisome. significant discrimination, including racial bias and imposition on vulnerable individuals, such as those with intellectual disability, brain damage and severe mental illness. There is also a danger that innocent people will be killed.
Biden previously opposed capital punishment and issued a moratorium about executions when he became president, but he has not yet indicated whether he is going to change his views.
There are 40 people currently on federal death row, and 38% of them are Black, even though Black people comprise 14% of the US population. Almost four in four people were 21 or younger at the time of the crime. And 43% percent of them come from just three states – Missouri, Texas and Virginia.
In another letter released Monday, 38 former U.S. attorneys general, attorneys general and former U.S. attorneys and justice department officials filed for capital punishment.
“We know that the worst have not always been the worst, but often unfortunate, unfortunate, helpless, perverse, and broken,” they wrote. “Time and time again, we have been a people with long histories of debilitating mental illness, children suffering from unspeakable physical and mental abuse, and intellectual disabilities that have prevented them from leading adult lives. Even the innocent are likely to be executed. The group has also shown in studies that the death penalty is not effective in deterring violence neither reduce the crime.
A group of today’s prison officials, including some who are invincible, show that the injuries correctional staff face when capital punishment is exercised: who was affected by the execution, and those next to them.
The families of Biden’s murder victims also argued that the death penalty “wastes many millions of dollars that could be better invested in programs that reduce crime and violence and address the needs of families like ours.”
Others now include urging Biden to act American Civil Liberties UnionAmnesty International, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a coalition of Latino advocacy organizations, and the Innocence Project.
Trumpet aimed his rhetorical punishment at the pro-death campaign; call to the execution of “everyone who is caught selling drugs”. And to Trump’s allies, obviously through the crack Project 2025They called for capital punishment expansion and the US to do “everything possible to achieve finality” for the 40 people on federal death row.
In an interview before the election of Billie Allen, who is on federal death row and has long maintained his innocence, told the Guardian what it would be like to execute the executive order under the first Trump prefix: “I entered 19. These people grew up with. I see them carried away, never to return again, never to smile or hear them laugh.
He wished that people had recognized the death of rowing changeable culprits: “More people here are becoming better for themselves, their families and supporters.”