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Halt All Federal Death Penalty Executions

Congress must know we are watching, on behalf of history, justice and compassion. We demand that officials halt and suspend all federal death penalty executions. Officials of conscience must decry this action with President Trump and President-elect Biden.

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At a time in which the U.S. as a whole and individual states and counties have continued their long-term movement away from the death penalty, the federal government’s current efforts towards an execution spree has established it as an outlier jurisdiction out of step with the practices of the nation as a whole.  The federal government has already carried out more executions in 2020 than in any other year since capital punishment resumed in the U.S. in the 1970s.

We need to forgive and love, both in fidelity to our principles and for our own well-being. The 2005 "Statement of Conscience: Criminal Justice and Prison Reform" asserts "it is highly likely that we have executed innocent people and will do so again in the future unless we abolish the death penalty." Further, it identifies the abolition of the death penalty as part of the call to action for UUs under its “advocacy goals.”  

See:

• A UUSJ statement calling to Halt All Federal Death Penalty Executions
• The 2005 UUA Statement of Conscience: Criminal Justice and Prison Reform
• A December Hill article on Lisa Montgomery, Execution of only female federal prisoner on death row halted
• A December Hill article on the response to the execution of Brandon Bernard, Dozens of Democrats urge Biden to quickly end federal death penalty

In discussing COVID 19, a November Brennan Center For Justice piece, Mass Incarceration Has Been a Driving Force of Economic Inequality, reports:

 “We know that people who have been convicted of a crime or imprisoned are more likely to face poverty and other serious challenges.” Later, “These severe consequences are inextricably bound up with the nation’s 400-year history of racial injustice. Black and Latino men and women make up more than half of all Americans who have been to prison.” 

UUs know that economic justice is linked to the challenges of racial injustice in our country, that incarceration and criminal justice policies are likewise connected. UUSJ believes the application of the death penalty is prone to errors and is biased by factors such as race, economic status, the quality of legal representation, and the location where the crime was committed. Its application is deeply flawed and can be irreversibly wrong.