SPLC: Attorney General Sessions' approach to the death penalty in drug cases is unconstitutional
Former Deputy Legal Director, Criminal Justice Reform
With the return to mandatory minimum sentencing, Jeff Sessions took us backwards to the tactics of America’s failed War on Drugs.
Now he’s doubling down on America’s ineffective, inhumane death penalty system. Experts agree that the opioid epidemic is a public health crisis, and there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the death penalty would be an effective tool in combating it. Focusing on the death penalty for traffickers will only divert resources from saving lives.
Attorney General Sessions and President Trump may bill these policies as “law and order,” but encouraging federal prosecutors to apply charges that bring the death penalty in drug cases is not just destructive, it is also unconstitutional.
