A group of United Nations experts have urged US President Joe Biden to end the death penalty in the United States, both at the federal and state levels.
In a statement, experts have described the practice as “abhorrent” and have stated that it lacks “deterrent value” and “cannot be reconciled with the right to life.”
“Despite the idea that capital punishment can be applied humanely, executions have resulted in degrading spectacles,” they stated before stating that “the death penalty is a form of punishment that disproportionately affects African Americans. and people living in poverty. “
They have also regretted that it continues to be used in the context of a violation of procedural guarantees, “such as the lack of access to a lawyer.” In 2020, the US government resumed executions, killing 13 people within six months.
Experts have given an example of the case of Lisa Montgomery, a woman who was executed despite having been victims of an extreme level of physical and sexual violence throughout her life, an issue that would have been “overlooked. “.
“We ask President Biden to take pity on 48 individuals who are awaiting her execution and who have been like this for more than a decade,” the text states. In this sense, they have clarified that the idea is, ultimately, to achieve that “from the Congress the abolition of the death penalty is achieved at the federal level.”
They also asserted that during this time the Biden Administration should consider the possibility of “implementing measures at the federal level to curb this practice.” “There is no time to lose. There are thousands of convicted individuals throughout the country and there are still executions scheduled for 2021,” they lamented.
