Bending the Arc

President Biden ran on a campaign promise to abolish the federal death penalty. On December 23, following weeks and months of public pressure, and just before Christmas, he commuted 37 of the 40 people on death row. This has caused many mixed feelings. While many are grateful for the progress, others feel he needs to finish the job. Leaving three of what some consider “the worst of the worst,” plus 4 on military death row, still makes killing justify killing.

The organization, Death Penalty Action was started in 2017. They work to stop executions and abolish the death penalty through advocacy, education, and action. They are also strong supporters of death by incarceration, not execution.

Hear Abe Bonowitz, Director of Death Penalty Action, in an NPR interview Christmas morning.

Following President Biden’s commutations, Death Penalty Action offered a powerful press conference. 

For the many that work so hard against the death penalty this was a victory, but with the next president coming in with his promise to execute as many as possible, we need President Biden to finish the job before he leaves office. In line with our corporate stance on the death penalty, CSA has signed this organizational sign-on letter to President Biden.

Individually, you can write to President Biden and urge him to:

• Commute the sentences of those remaining on federal and military death rows;
• Deauthorize all pending federal capital trial cases and establish guidelines prohibiting authorization of any new death penalty prosecutions during your administration;
• Rescind the lethal injection protocol; rescind the “Manner of Execution” regulation that took effect in December 2020; rescind internal DOJ guidelines on litigating death row cases that took effect in December 2020
• Order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to demolish the federal execution chamber and the building in which it is housed at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terre Haute

ACT NOW