The Wrong Way to Fight the Death Penalty
To end executions, opponents should stop ignoring victims, scorning the law and bringing up abortion.
The Supreme Court isn’t the place to make the case.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr, the federal government has executed nine prisoners since July and is set to execute four more before the change of administrations on Jan. 20. Opponents of the death penalty are appalled at the pace, with the editors of the Washington Post writing that the Justice Department “has gone on a sickening spree of executions.”
NBC and Slate are also calling it a “spree”; other news outlets are calling it a “rush.” Cori Bush, an incoming Democratic member of Congress, calls it “state-sanctioned murder.”