By now you've heard that yesterday the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General William Barr announced that the federal government plans to resume executing prisoners. The last federal execution was in 2003. Attorney General William P. Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions for five inmates.

This move by Attorney General Barr and this Justice Department is backward looking and out of step with the progress being made across the county. In the last calendar year, two more states have abolished the death penalty, both citing racial bias as the main reason why capital punishment is wrongfully applied and carried out. Consistently, public opinion polls indicate that the death penalty has fallen out of favor with the American people who increasingly view it as unfair, arbitrary and a relic of the past.

In every corner of America, a conversation about the need to reform our criminal justice system is taking place. The Trump Administration decision to jump start the broken death penalty is another tilt in the direction of authoritarian and anti-democratic values.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) continues our critical work to end the heinous practice of capital punishment. Our Justice Powered by Information & Action (JPIA) program is engaging concerned citizens to spread the truth that the death penalty does nothing to keep communities safe.

This year we also launched our Grassroots Film Promoters program, screening the award winning film In the Executioner's Shadow. Both programs engage educated and mobilized activists to help spread support for abolition across the nation, demonstrating that ending the death penalty is in the mainstream.

Let’s fight back by building a stronger and more powerful voice for ending the death penalty and for civil and human rights. We must not lose ground. Go to our NCADP website. Be active and participate in upcoming activities.

We need your help to build the power to win!

Diann Rust-Tierney

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