McClain Junior Lobbyist Group Affirms Abolishing Capital Punishment RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, racial bias is still prevalent in the Criminal Justice system and African-Americans are disproportionately given death sentences; and

WHEREAS, people of color have accounted for 43 percent of total executions since 1976; and

WHEREAS, people of color account for 55 percent of those currently on death row; and

WHEREAS, one-third of defendants sentenced to death have their sentences overturned in Appellate Court; and

WHEREAS, between 1973 and 2019, 173 innocent death-row prisoners were exonerated and released; and

WHEREAS, since October 2002, 12 people have been executed where the defendant was white and the murder victim was black, compared with 178 black defendants executed for murder with white victims; and

WHEREAS, capital punishment does not deter crime; and

WHEREAS, the Death Penalty Information Center study of 30 years of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report Homicide data found that Southern States account for more than 80 percent of all United States executions and still consistently rank highest in murder rates; and

WHEREAS, the states that still maintain the death penalty also had the highest incidents of lynching between 1883 and 1940; and

WHEREAS, the jurisdictions with the highest percentages of minorities on its death row are the U.S. Military (86%), Colorado (80%), U.S. Government (77%), Louisiana (72%), and Pennsylvania (70%); and

WHEREAS, only two (2) percent of the counties in the U.S. have been responsible for the majority of cases leading to executions since 1976. Likewise, only two (2) percent of the counties are responsible for the majority of today’s death row population and recent death sentences; and

WHEREAS, all of the state executions since the death penalty was reinstated stem from cases in just 15 percent of the counties in the U.S. All of the 3,125 inmates on death row as of January 1, 2013 came from just 20 percent of the counties; and

WHEREAS, twenty seven states still have capital punishment authorized; and

WHEREAS, lethal injection, electric chair, gas chamber, and firing squad, are all still legal forms of executions; and

WHEREAS, more than 70 percent of the world’s countries have abolished capital punishment in law or practice; and

WHEREAS, it cost 70 percent more to execute a prisoner compared to life in prison; and

WHEREAS, a single federal execution can cost up to $1 million; and

WHEREAS, the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) found that boxed meals alone cost over $25,000 per execution; and

WHEREAS, the youngest person executed in the United States was a Black teen, George Stinney, 14, falsely accused of murdering two white children, and

WHEREAS, the South Carolina Legislature passed legislation making Firing Squad, and Electric Chair means of execution and ended the pause on executions in 2022.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the McClain Junior Lobbyist Group

THAT, we affirm our support of abolishing the Death Penalty in the State of South Carolina and across the United States; and

THAT, the Death Penalty be replaced with life sentences as the alternative; and

THAT, we call for racial equity throughout the criminal justice system; and

THAT, racial equity can be accomplished through the abolition of capital punishment, the demilitarization of police, reformation within the prison Industrial complex;

THAT, the McClain Junior Lobbyist Group urges an increase in funding towards societal reintegration for felons prior to the completion of their sentence.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, these demands be shared with the following individuals: Henry McMaster, Governor of South Carolina; Bryan P. Stirling, Director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections; Thomas C. Alexander, President of the South Carolina State Senate; Shane R. Martin, Chairman of the South Carolina State Senate Corrections and Penology Committee, A. Shane Massey, Majority Leader of the South Carolina State Senate; Brad Hutton, Minority Leader of the South Carolina State Senate; Murrell Smith, Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives; Davey Hiott, Majority Leader of the South Carolina House of Representatives; Todd Rutherford, Minority Leader of the South Carolina House of Representatives, The Post and Courier, The State Newspaper, The Herald Journal