DEATH ROW--death penalty in America

[HairOfTheDog]

Death Penalty Updates

13 federal death-row inmates have been executed in the U.S. since July, making President Donald Trump the most prolific executioner since Grover Cleveland in the 1880s.

There had been no federal executions carried out in the U.S. in the previous 17 years.

In order to rush the executions through quickly, Trump's administration hired private executioners and paid them in cash.  They also purchased death-cocktail drugs directly from pharmacies.

On the state level, there are now 25 states that allow death as legal punishment, 22 which prohibit it by law (with New Hampshire and Colorado being the latest), and 3 which prohibit it by Gubernatorial Moratoria.  The country is evenly split.  



Globally, death sentences have been declining steadily in recent years.  Death penalty: How many countries still have it? - BBC News

US President-elect Joe Biden has signaled that he will not authorize federal executions during his term.

Refs:

State by State | Death Penalty Information Center

[url=https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9153975/Dustin-Higgs-heads-death-chamber-13^th-final-federal-execution-Trumps-term.html]Dustin Higgs heads to the death chamber in the 13^th and final federal execution of Trump's term | Daily Mail Online[/url]

That is too broad of a brush stroke statement!!  There are extreme heinous crimes where it must be required!
No fear of severe punishment for heinous crimes is certainly not a deterrent to committing them!

I hear you Cars.

But, a whole lotta people disagree that murdering someone as legal/governmental punishment, even for heinous crimes, is appropriate.

No federal death-row inmates were executed in the second part of the W. Bush Administration nor the entire Obama Administration either. 
 
As is the case with many other issues, our country is split when it comes to the death penalty.

Personally, I don't believe the death penalty is a deterrent for those who would commit the kind of crimes which would merit the death penalty in the first place.

However, I do believe that the threat of death as penalty aids prosecutors in securing vital information and verifiable confessions to obtain convictions once the crime has already been committed.