I disagree. Some people, like Alfred Bourgeois, absolutely deserve it. I think the death penalty should be abolished because our justice system is imperfect and killing someone is permanent. But as long as we have it, I have no problem using it in this case.
I don’t agree that no one deserves the death.
I use to be pro-death penalty.
But I am not now. Not because no one deserves it (many do) but because I struggle with giving the state the power to use it’s mass resources to put someone to death.
I know it happens it war, but that is country vs country. Not the state deciding to take the life of one of it’s citizens and using it’s power to do it.
And yes, I struggled with Obama drone strikes on US citizens.
Best case, for me, is when someone is killed in prison. (think Jeffery Dahmer)
I would like to see the death penalty abolished too.
It would take an act of Congress (and to my preference, a full-fledged Constitutional amendment). But we don’t have a Congress capable of that right now. We don’t have the political atmosphere to enact much of anything.
I disagree with the suggestion that nobody “deserves” to die. Some acts are truly that heinous. Yet all the same I disagree with the death penalty – even when someone “deserves” it. Just about the only deliberate taking of another life I can agree with is in matters of self defense, and executing a “deserving” criminal does not fit that bill.
Biden most likely will simply refuse to enact any executions. Superficially, that addresses the immediate executions, but it doesn’t fix the problem.
But what Biden CAN do is simply commute every death sentence upon taking office and commute any federal death penalty imposed during his administration. Because of the minimum 15 year lag between sentencing and execution of sentence, that will create a long window during which a Congress might be elected that will abolish the death penalty.