Death Penalty
1. A Quick Overview
The death penalty is a punishment of the middle ages. It does not deter violence, it only promotes a system of cruelty, irrationality and hatred.
Why would we be one of the few remaining places in the world to continue a practice straight out of Hammurabi’s playbook? Why entrust such a power in the government to begin with?
The death penalty does not help the victims or their families. It turns the government and the unfortunate officials tasked with the job into murders themselves. Many times, innocent people are killed. It violates international law. On top of all of that, it costs the government more than a life sentence. Death penalty sycophants only have anecdotes to pull at our emotional strings; these stories do not overcome the facts.
The death penalty also violates a standard of ‘no cruel and unusual punishment’ seen in both the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. However, the Free Republic’s Constitution clarifies the such language stating in Article 2, Section 2:
No one shall be sentenced to death, tortured or otherwise treated in a manner violating human dignity.
Additionally, the Free Republic, unlike the United States, shall ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, whose mission is to ban the death penalty worldwide. Article 7, Section 2 mandates such a commitment:
Upon recognition as a valid member state by the United Nations, California shall adopt and ratify all geographically relevant human rights and environmental instruments, including but not limited to, conventions, covenants and protocols of the United Nations.
What kind of people do we want to be?
The death penalty is a brutal relic of a foregone time and must end forever.
2. Influence Your Representatives
Write them all. It takes five seconds.
Here is some suggested text to use:
Dear _______________,
Please amend the Constitution to clarify that ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ includes the death penalty.
The death penalty is not a deterrent.
The death penalty is irrational.
The death penalty is expensive.
The death penalty is horrific.
The death penalty is a relic of the middle ages.
Blood is on all our hands.
Sincerely yours,
X
