TALKING POINTS: Suspend the Death Penalty

BACKGROUND

The death penalty is the most lethal form of social injustice in the United States. The race and class bias which permeates the American justice system result in this most extreme punishment being handed out almost exclusively to the poor and people of color. For these reasons, the NAACP continues to call for an end to the barbaric practice of state sponsored executions.

On December 16th of 2006, Angel Diaz was executed by lethal injection. It took Diaz 34 minutes to die what is believed to have been an excruciating death. Most people put to death are unconscious within 3-5 minutes of receiving a lethal injection. Angel Diaz was said to have kept moving and demonstrating pain responses for almost half an hour. Remarkably, Mr. Diaz had been seeking a stay in his execution because he maintained that death by lethal injection was inhumane.

The governor of Florida, where the execution occurred, and the governor of California chose to suspend all executions in their states pending investigations of whether the death penalty can be administered without violating the Constitutional prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment." The governor of New Jersey is also considering a moratorium on the death penalty.

The NAACP welcomes this opportunity to re-open the national conversation about the ways in which the death penalty inevitably violates the most fundamental principles of humanitarianism and civil rights.

QUICK STATS

• A study of convictions in Philadelphia found that black defendants were 38% more likely to receive the death penalty than whites convicted of the same crime.
• Researchers at the University of North Carolina find that the death sentence is three and a half times more likely to be given when the victim of a crime is white than when they are black.
• African American make up 13% of the U.S. population, but 72% of the cases in which the U.S. Attorney General chose to seek the death penalty.
• Nearly all of the 3,500 Americans awaiting execution on death row today have low-income backgrounds, many are mentally retarded and most are Black or Latino.

TALKING POINTS

The death penalty is cruel and unusual both in its administration and in the persistent systemic bias against the poor and people of color. Prosecutors have a choice in when to pursue the death penalty and only do so about 1% of the time. More than 90% of prosecutors who decide which crimes deserve capital punishment are white.

There is no credible evidence that the death penalty decreases crime. In fact, high profile executions are often associated with a rise in violent crime. The long legal proceedings associated with the death penalty are more expensive for the state than the cost of keeping an inmate in prison for life.

The justice system is biased against those without the money to hire adequate legal defense. Nearly all death row inmates are poor and most are racial minorities Temporary moratoriums are a temporary solution. There is only one fair resolution: the death penalty must be immediately and permanently suspended.

TAKE ACTION!

Call your elected officials to request a permanent moratorium on the death penalty in your state.