President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
On behalf of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), a non-governmental, non-partisan international network of over 1,200 legislators in 136 democratically-elected parliaments committed to human rights and the rule of law, we welcome your commitment to justice, equality and fairness and your vow to end the federal death penalty.
We are conscious of the many challenges your Administration faces, from leading the U.S. through a deadly pandemic to tackling the erosion of democratic institutions and principles, and reinstating the global standing of the United States. In your inaugural address, you said that “[w]e can make America, once again, the leading force for good in the world”. We believe that under your leadership, great progress can be achieved for universal human rights, domestically and internationally.
We applaud the order of a moratorium on federal executions by Attorney General Merrick Garland on 1 July 2021 to allow for a Justice Department review of death penalty policy. While extremely important, we note that this review may not be sufficient to guarantee the non-application of the federal death penalty. A moratorium can be lifted in any moment, as demonstrated by the previous U.S. Administration, when former Attorney General William Barr reversed, on 25 July 2019, a nearly two decade moratorium on the federal death penalty. As a result, 13 individuals were executed at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, including some in the final months of the presidential mandate while the coronavirus pandemic ravaged prisons. In addition, in the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s 14 June brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in United States of America v. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the DOJ is supporting the reinstatement of the death sentence for the Boston Marathon bomber.
The death penalty disproportionately affects vulnerable populations and minorities. Additionally, the justice system is not immune to error and the inherently-flawed death penalty carries the risk that an innocent person may be wrongfully executed. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), “since 1973, more than 170 people who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated.”
Mr. President, more than 70% of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Retentionist countries include China and the Islamic Republic of Iran, where governments massively violate human rights and fundamental freedoms.
As your Administration is reclaiming and reaffirming the moral leadership of the U.S. and commitment to human rights domestically and abroad, we respectfully urge you to fully use your prerogatives to ensure the elimination of the federal death penalty, which is inhumane, disproportionate, irreversible, and ineffective and to commute the sentences of the remaining people on federal death row.
Respectfully,
Ms. Margareta Cederfelt MP, Sweden;
President, PGA
Hon. Syed Naveed
Qamar MP,Pakistan;
Chair, PGA International Council
Hon. Kasthuri Patto
MP, Malaysia;
Co-convenor, PGA International Law and
Human Rights Program
Dep. Levy Nazaré
São Tomé and Príncipe;
Convenor, PGA International Law and Human
Rights Program
Mr. Mark Pritchard
MP, United Kingdom;
