Throughout the last year, the Delaware Repeal Project has been building a movement to end capital punishment in our state. A dedicated team has transformed the ACLU-DE conference room into a full-fledged campaign headquarters. Nightly, staff and volunteers make phone calls to recruit supporters upstate and down to sign the online petition and write a letter to or visit their elected officials urging them to vote to repeal the death penalty. Our momentum is growing quickly.
In March, Senator Karen Peterson intends to introduce a bill in the General Assembly to end the death penalty. For this effort to succeed and the dream of repeal to become a reality, we need the assistance and support of every ACLU member in Delaware. Please take action to stop the death penalty today.
While Delaware is a small state, we are big on the death penalty. In fact, we were one of only nine states to execute anyone in 2012 and we rank 3rd per capita in executions among states with the death penalty. We have conducted 18 executions in the last 20 years and currently have 17 men on death row.
Supporters of repeal believe that the death penalty should be abandoned because it does nothing to reduce violent crime or keep our community safe. Murder rates in states without the death penalty are actually significantly lower than states with the death penalty. In Illinois, in the year after abolition, the Chicago Police Department reported that the murder rate in the city reached a 40-year low.
Our government officials are also responsible for spending tax-payer dollars effectively. Yet the death penalty system is much more expensive than life without parole. Research in Maryland showed that it was three times more expensive. Here in Delaware, it’s estimated that our system costs a minimum of 6 to 7 million dollars per year. That money could be much better spent on services for victims of crime and improving public safety.
Perhaps even more importantly, the death penalty is an assault on civil and human rights. Innocent people are convicted and sentenced to death. Since 1973, 142 people have been exonerated and released from death row based on their innocence. This means that for every nine people executed in the U.S., one innocent person has been exonerated.
The application of the death penalty is also arbitrary and unfair. Those sentenced to death are more likely to be poor, mentally ill, or people of color. The factors most likely to lead to a death sentence are race, location, and economic standing, not the nature of the crime committed.
If a public policy has proved to be ineffective, overly expensive, biased and flawed, it is time to change it. Please join our effort. To volunteer or learn more, please call Sean at 302-388-3576 or email sean@derepeal.org. Visit our website at www.derepeal.org.
The time for repeal is now. Please take action to stop the death penalty today.
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- Sign the petition at derepeal.org.
- Write a letter to your legislators asking them to support repeal. Send snail mail to P.O. Box 1401, Dover, DE 19903
- Join us for a rally at noon on March 12th at Legislative Hall in Dover.
- Spread the word to more people and help grow the campaign.
