Capital punishment remains controversial in the US, with critics warning of innocent people being put on death row.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced plans to expand the use of the federal death penalty, including through the deployment of firing squads.

The announcement on Friday was part of a policy document issued by the Department of Justice, setting out the legal argument for various methods of execution.

It touted steps for “restoring and strengthening” the death penalty as integral to the pursuit of justice.

“The Department of Justice acted to restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences — clearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    1·
    18 hours ago

    I don’t know, we’re already well down that path already

    I’m not claiming the technology doesn’t exist, I’m saying that I don’t want the society I live in to fund its expansion and employment by the state against its citizens. Once deployed, it would be trivially easy to employ against not only “the convicted” but any other group the state wanted killed. Even proponents of state level death penalty probably don’t want that.

    if you agree with the death penalty I personally do not.

    You and I agree on this. I might be onboard with it if we have a way of enforcing it without ever executing an innocent person, and also equal enforcement across groups. The historical data doesn’t like. The death penatly is disproportionately applied to people of color, so the system is broken. This means we cannot rightfully have a state level death penalty.

    • leoj@piefed.socialEnglish
      1·
      18 hours ago

      ah, the way you said “encourage” led me to believe you meant that it was not available, and that discussion of which would encourage its development further. The slippery slope debate about its use elsewhere is valid, but I think it is also valid to discuss it as an alternative when discussing viable death penalty executioners, and it is part of my reasoning for why the death penalty is wrong across the board.

      If you think this sort of technology won’t be deployed the moment a serious civil uprising occurs, well then I envy you because I would love to live under that belief - but I don’t.