The Land of the Free, Where Violence is a Means to End Violence
Amid the senseless executions of death row inmates these past few months, the fight against the death penalty has gained more attention.
Five Black men were executed in America this past year.
As a young kid, I imagined that by 2020, we’d have flying cars, technology that would go further than any stretch of my imagination. That there would no longer be people on the streets and kids would never go hungry. I imagined a safe world for my brothers. I imagined something that seems nearly impossible today.
2020 felt like a year-long time warp with the days blending in together incongruously, making us face our enigmatic existence. In some ways the year took us many steps forward, teaching us the importance of living in the present and connecting with our inner selves, and in others, it gripped us in a constant state of doom and hopelessness. Among the many disheartening changes to happen in 2020, mostly due to the intolerant Trump administration, is the end of the unofficial moratorium on capital punishment since 2003.
Prior to 2020, no federal executions took place in the 2010s, and of the 47 federal executions carried out since 1927, 10 of them took place in the year 2020 alone. Though we’ve witnessed a significant decrease in state executions over the past few decades, this past year has seen a considerable increase in the number of federal executions initiated by Trump’s bloodthirsty administration.
As we move into 2021, the federal government plans to carry out three executions in January — two of them being Black men — before President-elect Joe Biden, who seems to be leaning towards abolishing the death penalty, takes office.
As a former senator of Delaware, Biden firmly believed in the death penalty as a means of ending street violence, but his stance on the issue has drastically changed in the past decade.
The 1994 crime bill Biden authored has contributed to the mass incarceration and over-criminalization of Black people; he has since said he regrets his decision for the damage it has done. Some believe Biden’s redirection towards abolishing the death penalty is a facade to make himself more favorable to his political party, especially towards Black voters.
The death penalty, for all intents and purposes, is blatantly racist.
Several studies have shown that the defendant is more likely to receive the death penalty if they are Black or a person of color. A study conducted by University of Iowa law professor David Baldus found that in the 1980s, the state of Georgia sought the death penalty for 70 percent of Black defendants with white victims, but it was only sought for 15 percent of white defendants with Black victims. In the early 2000s, the U.S Department of Justice found that the death penalty is used adversely against Black people and people of color; 80 percent of cases that pushed for the death penalty between 1995 and 2000 incriminated people of color.
Needless to say, the death penalty has been disproportionately harming Black folk and people of color for decades, and the recent lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty is more than just an act of violence: it’s a hate crime.
During Biden’s presidential campaign, Democrats have been heavily calling for the abolition of the death penalty, demanding that Biden sees to it once he’s sworn into office. When asked about “the talk” during the second presidential debate — a conversation Black parents are often compelled to have with their children on how to interact with the police — President-elect Biden said he recognizes the issue of institutional racism in America and promises to contribute to the betterment of Black and brown communities by providing “economic opportunities, better healthcare, better access to schooling.” But how exactly does the Biden administration plan to tackle the miscarriage of justice that is the United States’ criminal justice system?
The Biden administration has called for the “immediate passage” of Congressman Bobby Scott’s (SAFE) Justice Act, which, among other things, plans to curtail over-criminalization, increase funding for public safety initiatives, and increase the use of evidence-based alternatives to incarceration. Biden also promises to steer away from incarceration and toward prevention by implementing a $20 billion competitive grant program in an effort to reduce crime, mass incarceration, illiteracy, and child abuse. On the issue of mass incarceration due to minor crimes such as the possession of drugs, the Biden administration promises to expand federal funding for substance use disorder services. Other plans of reform include the legalization of marijuana, eliminating mandatory minimums, and ensuring access to quality counsel which all have the potential to decrease mass incarceration and the senseless need of the prison system to keep as many bodies in cages as possible.
As for the death penalty, the Biden administration plans to eliminate it at the federal level and offer life without parole as the alternative. Although such legislation would be a step forward in criminal justice reform, it would not extend to individual states. Instead, the Biden administration plans to incentivize states to follow the federal government’s steps towards abolishing the death penalty. This would be a huge progression in the anti-death penalty struggle, and although it could still be imposed by some states, a federal ban would encourage many states to move towards abolishing the death penalty. This, of course, all depends on the Biden administration’s ability to carry out such plans and living up to their promise.
The abolition of the death penalty is an act of justice long due to the Black and brown people of America. I will not say it amazes me that such a barbaric practice still exists in America because the racism and violence of this land are seemingly never-ending, almost as if its flowers blossom with the rain of blood and tears. The abolition of the death penalty would be the blooming of a new America, an America where our brothers aren’t hanged for everything but jaywalking.
