Democrats Scrub Death Penalty Opposition From Campaign Platform

In 2016, the Democratic Party became the country’s first major political party to formally call for abolishing the death penalty. The party’s platformthat year, released in the aftermath of a high-profile botched execution, called the punishment “cruel and unusual,” “arbitrary and unjust,” expensive to taxpayers and ineffective in deterring crime. The document also nodded to the people exonerated from death row as evidence of the risk that the government will kill innocent people.

During the 2020 campaign, the Democratic platform reiterated support for abolishing the death penalty. When Joe Biden entered office the following year, he became the first president to publicly oppose capital punishment — a dramatic shift from his time in the Senate, when he once bragged that the sweeping crime billhe was pushing did “everything but hang people for jaywalking.”

However, as his term winds down, Biden has little to show for the party’s promise to abolish capital punishment. On Monday, the Democrats approved their 2024 platform , which includes no mention of the death penalty. This year’s platform marks the first time since 2004 the platform has not mentioned the death penalty (the 2008 and 2012 platforms called for making the punishment less arbitrary).

Public support for the death penalty has been gradually declining. A Gallup poll last year found that 65% of Democrats oppose the punishment.

The Democratic National Committee did not respond to an email asking if the party still supports abolishing the death penalty.

The outcome of this year’s presidential election has life-or-death stakes for the people on federal death row. During the last six months of Donald Trump’s presidency, his administration executed 13 people,