The legislators of the state of Wyoming on Friday, February 1, voted for the law banning the death penalty. The Republican majority was inclined to this view after long discussions.
A similar bill under consideration in Kentucky. Recently, another «red» state — Virginia — has banned the death penalty against persons with severe mental illness. More and more Republicans believe the death penalty is immoral and is not effective in crime prevention.
Prosecutors to seek death penalty against 23-year-old accused of gunning down officer https://t.co/6mBbVvFnIF pic.twitter.com/EXY92X3Eep
— Marcia minto (@minto_marcia) February 4, 2019
Chad McCoy, a Republican from Kentucky, proposed to consider in this matter and the financial aspect: «Those who are on death row, cost us an excessive amount of money, and if we just lived without parole, we would save the state millions and millions of dollars.»
Agree with him tugs at Jared Olsen, who sponsored the bill in Wyoming: «I think we need to decide how should look like our system. If it’s not a deterrent, we must ask ourselves, then what is it. The only conclusion we can make: it all serves one purpose — revenge. I personally do not believe that we want to enshrine in our laws a system of retribution.»
Olsen also said that since 1973, more than 160 people over time were found innocent and released from death row. «This suggests that the system is not working. The death penalty is too much power to give it our government, which is wrong.»
Today in the U.S., 30 States use the death penalty. The leader in carrying out the death sentence of Texas where executed by 559 people. The leader in the number of sentenced contained on death row — the CA (740 people).
Overall in the U.S. in recent years, the number imposed by the courts of death sentences are steadily declining. Even the prosecution has become much less likely to require such sentences. In the end, since the mid 1990-ies of the death penalty decreased by 85 percent. Only 42 death sentences were handed down in 2018, compared with 295 in 1998.
«More and more Republicans voted for the abolition of the death penalty. Democrats support the abolition of higher rate, but the combination of their quick response and increasing the speed with which Republicans are beginning to support cancellation, created a bipartisan consensus that did not exist before,» says the Executive Director of the death penalty Robert Dunham.
