In two short months, 2021 has already seen quite the flurry of activity around death penalty repeal. Virginia repealed their system in full, and there are several others at their heels. This week, Wyoming, Georgia, and Ohio all saw bipartisan bills introduced to repeal their own systems. On top of that, federal legislation has been introduced with 17 sponsors and counting.  It’s undeniable the momentum is on our side. And it’s easy to see why. The death penalty is a huge opportunity cost that makes our society less safe. It’s extremely expensive (and not because it takes too long, try again), and it provides no deterrent effect. That means we waste millions on a system that doesn’t improve public safety, instead of spending those resources on intervention programs that actually work, or on solving more crimes – which we’re really bad at. The death penalty wastes resources and makes us less safe while also constantly risking innocent lives. Just recently, 11 more people were added to the exoneration list – making it one person exonerated from death row for every eight executions. Yikes. As states struggle to pay their bills in the wake of go

Big things continue to build in Ohio!  Just this week a new bill to repeal the state’s death penalty was introduced with significant bipartisan support. Conservative coalitions are revving up, and it looks like the Buckeye State has a good shot at success. If you are in the state, you can contact your lawmakers here to let them know you want to see them pass this bill. You can also read more about this effort here.

The Nebraska legislature completed two days of debate on the death penalty today. Although the debate ended with a filibuster instead of a vote, test votes taken during the debate indicated that there’s majority support for ending the death penalty in the unicameral legislature. Several repeal supporters gave heartfelt, eloquent testimony on the Senate floor about why the death penalty was broken, many of them sharing why they changed their minds from being against repeal to now supporting it. Last time Nebraska voted on the death penalty, only 13 lawmakers voted for repeal. Yesterday’s test vote received 26 votes, or double the support. Newspapers and experts within Nebraska are saying that these test votes mean if we’d had a vote on the bill, it would probably have passed. Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in a press release, “The death penalty in Nebraska has been a colossal failure, and the lawmakers and citizens of our state now recognize the inevitable demise of this broken system,” said Stacy Anderson, Executive Director of Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The release continues, “During the debate many conservative and democratic legislat