The death penalty is racially biased - So why does Hillary support it?

[azmom]

"I believe it is time for the United States of America to join every other Western, industrialized country on Earth in saying no to the death penalty," Sanders, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, said from the Senate floor. "We are all shocked and disgusted by the horrific murders that we see in this country, seemingly every week. And that is precisely why we should abolish the death penalty."

He made a similar push during a separate interview with “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts," adding that "I think many of us understand that a lot of innocent people, often people of color, have been executed who in fact were not guilty of the charges made against them."

Sanders's comments come after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that while the death penalty should be "limited and rare," she didn't support abolishing it.

The Vermont senator has previously spoken out against the practice. He said during a May interview that on the Thom Hartmann radio show, "I'm against capital punishment in general."

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/258572-sanders-doubles-down-on-opposition-to-death-penalty

[restorefreedom]

1. the answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,

the answer is blowin in the wind.....

[MisterP]

2. so's war and bank fraud ...

[azmom]

4. Shit happens?

[sabrina 1]

30. Our Foreign Wars couldn't be more racist if we tried. So for me, those who support the DP

AND our Wars, and then claim to 'care' about racism and women etc, are simply not believable. Just spouting rhetoric they feel they need to spout during campaigns.

[marym625]

3. I am blown away by this

No snark. No bullshit. I'm just sickened by the way our country kills people. It is barbaric

[UglyGreed]

23. Glad I'm not

the only one

[Fumesucker]

5. It polls well with conservatives

[Renew Deal]

6. Nice race baiting

[restorefreedom]

9. wow. just wow. nt

[Renew Deal]

10. I agree

It's easy to make the death penalty point without dragging race into it.

[azmom]

11. As a latina, the race aspect is very troubling to me.

Sorry you find it objectionable .

[Renew Deal]

13. So if it wasn't for racial bias you would support it?

[azmom]

14. The racial bias is a big part of why oppose it.

[restorefreedom]

12. no, its not, both issues are relevant

The death penalty itself is the overriding issue, whether the state has the legal right to kill its own citizens for any reason. I believe that it doesn't. The issue within the main issue is the matter of race. Study after study has shown that the death penalty is disproportionately applied to people of color, people of very little financial means, and in interracial murder, blacks who kill whites.

anyone who supports criminal justice reform and is concerned about the mistreatment of people of color has to take a look at the death penalty issue. And if they want to support it fine, but they should know they're supporting a type of punishment that is not applied fairly or equally among groups of people and decide whether they can live with that.

[azmom]

16. Any type of criminal justice reform must

Include the abolishment of the death penalty. There is no way around that.

[restorefreedom]

19. yup. priority one imo. nt

[Logical]

15. Wow, I can tell where you stand. Race issues don't matter. nt

[jfern]

21. 42% of those on death row are black, so of course it's racial

[tularetom]

7. The same reason she supports wars all over the globe

It makes her look "strong", "decisive", "macho", unlike that wimpy Obama and the other girly men who run in Democratic primaries.

Don't forget "We came, we saw, he died". She loves killing people, maybe as much as her brother in law from another mother, GW bush.

[840high]

22. Hillary doesn't give 2 farts about

people.

[Maedhros]

8. The Private Prison Industry is the poster child for institutional racism.

Why did Hillary appoint two of their lobbyists as fundraising bundlers?

Maybe because she really doesn't care?

[kelliekat44]

17. She only supports it in very rare instances...nt

[Android3.14]

20. Because she is a poor leader

[Uncle Joe]

24. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, azmom.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. She thinks that executing people should be "safe, legal, and rare" like abortion. K&R

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-hillaryclinton-abortion-plannedparenthood-20150727-story.html

In 2008, Clinton agreed with a questioner that Americans on both sides of the abortion issue should work together to try to reduce the number of abortions to zero. Clinton reminded her questioner that she thought abortion should be “safe, legal and rare, and by rare I mean rare.”

[bravenak]

26. Mass incarceration is also racially biased and affects more people. Why did Bernie vote for it?

[thesquanderer]

27. Different topic, but I'm curious, which vote are you referring to? (n/t)

[bravenak]

28. The crime bill.

[Comrade Grumpy]

29. You mean the Clinton-era crime bill?

Here's his complete voting history on crime legislation. It may provide a more nuanced picture of his positions than focusing on a single vote. As if you cared:

http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/27110/bernie-sanders/20/crime#.VjPOW7erSM8

[bravenak]

31. No. It's cool. He voted for lots of stuff I hate. Just like everybody else.

I just hate the sainthood image and it annoys me when people pretend things.

[thesquanderer]

36. That was a no-win proposition

You're talking about the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act?

From http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/sep/02/viral-image/where-do-hillary-clinton-and-bernie-sanders-stand-/

A spokesman for Sanders said he voted for the bill "because it included the Violence Against Women Act and the ban on certain assault weapons."

So if he had voted against it, people would now be complaining that he voted against an assault weapons ban or against the Violence Against Women Act.

That's the problem with making a "voted for" or "voted against" point without looking at everything the bill entailed. With some of these bills, there's ammunition no matter which way someone voted.

[Sheepshank]

32. Edited and clipped article misses an important comment by Hillary

Mrs. Clinton had said the death penalty had her “unenthusiastic support” when she ran for Senate from New York in 2000.

“We have a lot of evidence now that the death penalty has been too frequently applied and very unfortunately, often times in a discriminatory way,” she said during a question-and-answer session at a “Politics and Eggs” luncheon at St. Anselm College on Wednesday. She said she welcomed efforts by many states to revisit their policies.

“I do not favor abolishing it, however, because I think there are certain egregious cases that still deserve consideration of the death penalty, but I’d like to see those be very limited and rare,” she said.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clinton-backs-use-of-death-penalty-1446062646

“We have a lot of evidence now that the death penalty has been too frequently applied, and too often in a discriminatory way,” Clinton said at a Politics and Eggs breakfast at Saint Anselm College, according to a New York Times report. “So I think we have to take a hard look at it.”

Clinton, whose position is in direct contrast to other Democratic contenders, said it can't be fully abolished.

“I do not favor abolishing it, however, because I do think there are certain egregious cases that still deserve the consideration of the death penalty, but I’d like to see those be very limited and rare, as opposed to what we’ve seen in most states," Clinton said.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hillary-clinton-death-penalty-abolish


She acknowledges that there is an unfair racial component that must be fixed. Your OP is misleading

[Autumn]

33. As a Latina I will admit it's a fact that minorities overwhelmingly support her over Bernie so

she has no reason at this time to be against it.

[artislife]

35. Yet.

I wish the Democratic Latinos would give her the same treatment the Republican Latinos gave their party

[Prism]

34. She doesn't want to be perceived as a "squishy liberal"

It is also, I suspect, partly her motivation in constantly seeming to want to out-hawk the hawks.