As our state faces inevitable social and economic change in light of recent protests and the current pandemic, Pennsylvania needs to abolish the death penalty. According to the United States General Accounting Office, a defendant’s race directly influences the likelihood of a death sentence, with Black individuals most likely to face death row.
Additionally, the Death Penalty Information Center reports that each death sentence costs taxpayers approximately $272 million, as opposed to $42,000 annually for a life sentence. Furthermore, a recent Gallup poll found that a historically low number of Americans find capital punishment morally acceptable, as only 54% of respondents find the death penalty morally acceptable while 40% find it morally unacceptable. Unsurprisingly, answers followed party lines to some extent, as 67% of conservatives found it morally acceptable, as opposed to 56% of moderates and 37% of liberals.
At the same time, no political group remains remotely uniform in its opinion, thus creating a viable path for legislators to join the bipartisan push to end the death penalty in Pennsylvania. With our current financial struggles, ongoing social change and the shrinking moral acceptability of the death penalty, it has never been more urgent that we finally abolish capital punishment.
Jeremy Mauser
Salem