Articles of Interest: The New York Times Editorial Board Argues United States ​“Does Not Need the Death Penalty”

In an August 31, 2024, editorial from The New York Times, the newspaper’s editorial board writes that capital punishment is “immoral, unconstitutional and useless as a deterrent to crime,” and asserts that President Joseph Biden should follow through with his campaign pledge to end the federal death penalty. The Times believes “it would be an appropriate and humane finale to his presidency for Mr. Biden to fulfill that pledge and try to eliminate the death penalty for federal crimes.” Since 2000, public support for the death penalty has steadily declined, as have the number of new death sentences and executions. In 2000, there were 85 executions across the United States, compared to just 24 executions in 2023. While a small majority, about 55%, of Americans generally support the use of capital punishment, as of October 2023, half of Americans believe the punishment is no longer used fairly. 

Although President Biden has not promoted legislation to abolish the death penalty, The Times editorial board notes that he could direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to no longer pursue new death sentences and could commute the death sentences of prisoners currently on federal death row to life sentences without parole. The Times board writes that “Mr. Biden was right to identify capital punishment as a moral affront, and he should help relegate this practice to history.”

In the U.S., the death penalty is still available in 27 states, in the military, and at the federal level. In 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a moratorium on federal executions following a six-month execution spree during former President Donald Trump’s administration when 13 federally death-sentenced people were executed. The moratorium put all federal executions on hold while the DOJ conducts internal reviews of its policies and protocols. Despite this pause, AG Garland’s office continues to actively defend death sentences and has authorized a new death penalty case in the 2022 Topps Supermarket mass shooting in Buffalo, NY. Several other states have execution moratoriums in place, either to investigate their execution protocols or because they lack access to certain lethal injection drugs. In response to difficulty obtaining necessary lethal injection drugs, some states have begun searching for alternative methods of execution. In January 2024, Alabama executed Kenneth Smith and carried out the first execution in the U.S. by nitrogen hypoxia. The editorial board writes that while there is no doubt Mr. Smith was convicted of a “brutal” crime, “the question is whether death by asphyxiation is what Americans in Alabama and elsewhere should accept as justice and humanity in the 21st century.”