Recent editorials from leading newspapers in three of the largest death row states critique flaws in the death penalty and call for its abolition. The Sacramento Bee quoted federal district court judge Cormac Carney’s recent ruling finding California’s death penalty unconstitutional because executions are so rare that they “serve no retributive or deterrent purpose.” The Bee called the state’s capital punishment system “an abject failure” and said, “[t]he death penalty has not worked, and never will.” In the wake of the exoneration of Alfred Brown from Texas’ death row, the Dallas Morning News said, “Brown’s release underscores the unacceptably high potential for killing innocent people despite clear flaws in the prosecutorial system.” That editorial concluded,”The criminal justice system is too riddled with imperfections to merit reliance on a sentence that cannot be revisited or reversed once it’s carried out. Not when life without parole is an alternative.” In Pennsylvania, The Harrisburg Patriot-News said, “The state should not be in the business of killing people.” It urged Gov. Tom Wolf to go beyond the moratorium he imposed on the death penalty earlier this year and “seek an end to the practice entirely.” Citing the rarity of executions in Pennsylvania and the difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs, the editorial said, “Justice can be served through imprisoning a murderer for the rest of his or her life. Vengeance against the accused is not justice.”

(Editorial, “Confront reality and end death penalty charade,” The Sacramento Bee, June 13, 2015; Editorial, “Another big reason to rethink capital punishment,” Dallas Morning News, June 14, 2015; Editorial, “Politics notwithstanding, it’s time to take death penalty off the books in Pennsylvania,” The Patriot-News, June 16, 2015.) See Editorials.

Citation Guide