The Death Penalty Does Not Make Us Safer

Statement

By Witness to Innocence, on 24 January 2025

Witness to Innocence Responds to President Trump’s Executive Order on the Death Penalty, and Organizations from throughout the US and the World Sign-on in Solidarity

President Trump’s Executive Order on the Death Penalty makes our criminal justice system more dangerous. As exonerated death row survivors of Witness to Innocence, we know first-hand that the death penalty does not make us safer. We are just some of the 200 people in the United States who have been wrongfully convicted, sentenced to die on death row, and later exonerated. More people like us currently sit on death rows throughout the country. It happened to us, and it could happen to anyone. The Death Penalty Information Center’s data shows that “for every 8 people executed in the United States, one person wrongfully condemned to death has been exonerated.” We cannot accept government- sanctioned killing in a system that gets it wrong that often.

The executive order ignores this fact and other years of evidence and research, as well as growing public opposition to the death penalty:

• The death penalty does not improve public safety or prevent violence. There is no evidence of a reduction in violence because of the death penalty.
• The death penalty does not deter crime. States who retain the penalty and have the highest rates of execution do not have lower rates of violent crime. *
• The death penalty is disproportionately used to punish people of color, the poor, and those with mental illnesses.
• The death penalty drains public dollars without making communities safer. The money would be better spent, and we would all be safer if that money were used for proven violence prevention programs.
• Many different experts have identified serious problems with the use of lethal injection drugs.
• Opposition to the death penalty knows no political or faith boundaries – support for its abolition is bipartisan and comes from a variety of religious groups.

As an organization led-by and supporting people who were harmed by a broken system that sends innocent people to die, we stand opposed to President Trump’s Executive Order on the Death Penalty. The death penalty did not make us safer, nor did it make the victims of the crimes for which we were wrongfully convicted, their loved ones, or communities safer. The United States is in the shameful position of being one of the few developed nations to still carry out this cruel and ineffective practice. Let’s instead use our resources for programs that have been proven to reduce violence and make our communities safer.

*For further reference, the Death Penalty Policy Project analysis on public safety provides additional detail: DP3 Study: After 1,600 Executions, the Public and Police are Safer in States with No Death Penalty.

The death row exonerees of Witness to Innocence are living proof that our system is flawed and dangerous. Watch our videos to learn more.

Witness to Innocence, with the following US and Worldwide organizations that endorse this statement: 

8th Amendment Project, Abolition of Death Penalty in Iraq, The Advocates for Human Rights, The American Constitution Society, Capital Punishment Justice Project, Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide – Cornell Law School, CrimeInfo, a member organization of Anti Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), Death Penalty Action, Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona, Death Penalty Focus,faith leaders of color coalition (flocc), FIACAT -Fédération internationale des ACAT – International Federation of ACATs, Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFADP), Harm Reduction International, Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU), Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Kenya Human Rights Commission, Lawyers For Human Rights International, India, Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat,Le MRAP (Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l’Amitié entre les Peuples), Ministry Against the Death Penalty, Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), Paul Rougeau Committee – Italy, Pennsylvanians Against the Death Penalty, Puertorrican Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP), Women Beyond Walls, Witness to Innocence