Success: Federal Executions Halted

Target: Joe Biden, President of the United States

Goal: Back commutations of federal death row sentences.

Capital punishment is opposed for a variety of reasons, as highlighted in ForceChange petitions such as this one. Its potential biases have been brought to light. Its implementation as a form of cruel and unusual punishment has been debated. And its potential to intentionally end the life of an innocent person has been validated. Underlying all of the other arguments is the belief that the death penalty strikes at a fundamental human right — the right to life. Many nations that have grappled with these big questions have come away with one answer: capital punishment should be seriously deterred, if not altogether abolished. At least for now, America’s leadership has arrived at this same conclusion.

During his final weeks in office, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row to life imprisonment. The president had previously placed a moratorium on federal executions in order to study the procedure and its ramifications. Federal moratoriums had also previously been in place for over a decade until the first election of President Donald Trump, who oversaw the most federal executions in recent history. The president-elect had also vowed to expand capital punishment, despite all the concerns about its use and potential for fatal error.

Sign the petition below to support the choice of life over government-dictated death.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear President Biden,

The decision to commute the sentences of most federal death row inmates was neither an easy nor a popular decision. Given the long-standing concerns about capital punishment and the even longer-standing debate about life itself, it may have been the right decision for this time. The United States is now one step closer to joining the rest of the developed world in rejecting the reckless overuse of this controversial and deadly form of retribution.

Thank you for taking the stand and pushing forward this important conversation.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Florida Department of Corrections/Doug Smith