The death penalty is the epitome of a system that targets the most vulnerable at every turn. People on death row often come from poverty. They are disproportionately Black or Brown. There’s a very good chance they experienced violence or other serious trauma long before they committed harm. Many have cognitive disabilities or severe, untreated mental illness. More
And when they did something horribly wrong — something that may very well have been prevented had they gotten intervention for their struggles — only then did we finally pay attention…by focusing exclusively on how harshly to punish them…and whether or not to execute them.
The justice system devotes endless resources towards executions and mass incarceration, but far less to examining how those people ended up where they did or the many ways our society failed them before they got there.
It’s no surprise that our nation’s misguided approach to healing and justice culminates in the death penalty — a system deeply rooted in a legacy of racial oppression and terror. Executions, like lynchings before them, are a powerful tool for discarding the most vulnerable among us, allowing violence rather than preventing it.
We cannot hope to build a system that heals and restores when laws that take a human life endure.
Our Approach
EJUSA is building a new vision for addressing violence, one that begins with prevention and centers healing.
Our state and national death penalty repeal efforts change policies and narratives around the most egregious acts of violence. EJUSA has supported our state partners to end the death penalty in nine states, launched the nation’s first conservative anti-death penalty group, generated thousands of media stories that are changing the narrative around capital punishment, and recruited thousands of new allies across the country.
