Yesterday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown commuted the state’s entire death row. The death penalty in Oregon, as around the country, is unjust, unfair, and racially biased. Gov. Brown joins a bipartisan group of past and current governors who have used their clemency power to address systemic injustice. “[T]he death penalty is immoral,” Gov. Brown said in her announcement . “It is an irreversible punishment that does not allow for correction; is wasteful of taxpayer dollars; does not make communities safer; and cannot be and never has been administered fairly and equitably.” The death penalty is a stain on American democracy and represents the worst excesses of the American legal system. Capital punishment normalizes harsh sentences, perpetuates racial disparities, and wastes enormous financial resources on a punishment that is inhumane and fails to prevent violence and harm. Clemency is one way our elected leaders can provide a modicum of delayed justice for thousands of people they ar...
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