On Tuesday, the state of Missouri made the horrible and disgusting decision to execute Marcellus Williams.

Williams’s execution came despite evidence/due process issues by the state, and the family of his supposed victim even calling for his life to be spared.

It is beyond the word “travesty” that this was allowed to happen — but sadly, it’s the reality of living in a society that not only wrongly accepts the death penalty as legitimate, but does so knowing that it is 1.) carried out in biased ways (particularly against men of color), and 2.) often performed in error, even when new evidence surfaces that would require, at the very least and in a civilized society, a pause in moving forward.

Notably, the death penalty isn’t playing a part in this year’s elections. In the previous two cycles (2016 and 2020), the Democratic Party’s platform included calls for ending the death penalty. Joe Biden campaigned on ending it at the federal level, and Kamala Harris championed herself as an opponent of it for decades.

Yet, within this election cycle, Harris now appears to be backtracking/minimizing her previous calls to abolish the death penalty in the U.S. And within the party’s platform, it no longer is even mentioned at all.

This is the problem with trying to appeal to too big of a “tent” of voters in politics, as Harris is trying to do right now in order to defeat Donald Trump — your values get compromised. Don’t get it wrong, this election is too important to allow a person whose record is significantly worse on the death penalty (and worse for democracy in general) to be in that position of power ever again. The big tent strategy — courting moderate and even conservative voters to support Harris — could very well be looked at, in future history books, as having saved the Union.

But if Harris wins in November, she must be pressured to turn left again on various social issues — including on ending the death penalty, which, time and time again, has proven to be an unjust practice. It’s not just because it’s a progressive view, but because it’s the right and just view to take: the death penalty is, simply put, morally wrong.

Featured image credit:
World Coalition Against the Death Penalty/Flickr