Vance has co-sponsored Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn's Back the Blue Act of 2023, which would increase minimum and maximum sentences, up to life imprisonment or death, for assaulting or killing law enforcement officers. Vance has also introduced resolutions expressing support for law enforcement and condemning the District of Columbia's Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022.
In his remarks, Vance blasted the D.C. policing reform for making officers less safe by restricting the use of riot gear and the ability to chase violent offenders, and for "these ridiculous exhaustion requirements before they can use lethal force to protect themselves and people around them."
ACLU-Florida summary in opposition, 2/9: Ends the requirement for unanimous juries in death penalty cases, and allows the imposition of death based on as few as 8 jurors. Allows judges to override a jury's recommendation of a life sentence and instead impose death. Florida will be one of only 2 states that impose death on people without requiring a unanimous jury--a foolish idea for a state that already leads the nation in exonerations of those on death row.
Governor's press release in favor, 4/20: "Once a defendant in a capital case is found guilty by a unanimous jury, one juror should not be able to veto a capital sentence," said Governor Ron DeSantis.
Legislative Outcome: Passed Senate 29-10-1 on Mar/30/23; passed House 80-30-9 on Apr/13/23; signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on Apr/20/23.
There are 7 countries with "high application" of capital punishment for drug offenses, according to hri.global. Do those 7 countries have the fewest drug problems? We'll compare deaths from drugs per million people, from WorldLifeExpectancy.com--there's no pattern:
13 CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Cory Booker; Peter Buttigieg; Julian Castro; Bill de Blasio; John Delaney; Kirsten Gillibrand; John Hickenlooper; Amy Klobuchar; Beto O`Rourke; Bernard Sanders; Eric Swalwell; Elizabeth Warren; Andrew Yang.
Candidates who have called for abolishing capital punishment altogether say inmates sentenced to death should have their sentences commuted to life without parole.
CLINTON: I do reserve it for particularly heinous crimes, like terrorism. I thought it was appropriate after a very thorough trial that Timothy McVeigh received the death penalty for blowing up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
SANDERS: It's hard to imagine how people can bomb and kill 168 people in Oklahoma City, but this is what I believe: #1, too many innocent people, including minorities, African Americans, have been executed when they were not guilty. We have to be very careful about making sure about that. But #2, of course there are barbaric acts out there. But, in a world of so much violence and killing, I just don't believe that government itself should be part of the killing. So, when somebody commits any of these terrible crimes that we have seen, you lock them up, and you toss away the key. They're never going to get out. But, I just don't want to see government be part of killing.
Although he avoided naming the accused in the jogger case, Trump's reference to "roving bands of wild criminals" left no doubt about why he had paid for the ads. Newspaper accounts had described "wolf pack" gangs marauding in the park.
A: No. America's experience shows that capital punishment does not effectively stop crimes from being committed. And our judicial system makes mistakes, killing people who are innocent. It's time to move beyond capital punishment, to abolish it, and to instead use life imprisonment as the most severe form of sentencing for those who cannot be trusted to live in common society.
A: It's barbaric. It's outlawed internationally in all but a few extremely repressive countries like Iran, China, and not many others. It's shameful that it continues to be performed. It's well established that mistakes are made--yet half of our states practice pre-meditated state-sponsored murder. It's also known that it's not effective. So why is it done? Revenge & retribution? That's not what our justice system is supposed to be about. It's not an effective deterrent.
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