On Tuesday night, the state of Missouri executed a man convicted of murder despite concerns over the handling of evidence and jury selection in his case, and even objections from prosecutors and the victim’s family. Yet despite the public outcry over Marcellus Williams’ execution, Kamala Harris — whose opposition to the death penalty was once a hallmark of her career in public service — has been conspicuously silent on the issue.
Williams is one of several people who have been put to death in the U.S. in recent months. Harris has not commented publicly on Williams’ execution, and Axios reported that her campaign did not respond when asked whether she would support legislation to end the death penalty or sign an executive order to do so if elected.
The Democratic presidential nominee has repeatedly expressed a personal opposition to capital punishment, but her actions have not always reflected that. As San Francisco district attorney, Harris received intense criticism — including from top California Democrats — over her decision in 2004 to not pursue the death sentence for a gang member charged with killing a police officer.
In 2010, after Harris narrowly won her race for state attorney general while other California Democrats cruised to victory, some attributed it to her handling of the 2004 case. Then, as California AG in 2014, Harris appealed a federal judge’s ruling to overturn the death sentence of a man who had been on death row for decades, and an appeals court later reinstated his sentence. (In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on executions before the sentence could be carried out.)
When Harris ran for president in 2019, one of her campaign promises included seeking an end to the death penalty. At the time, she called capital punishment “a deeply flawed system” that is “disproportionately applied against people of color and in particular Black and brown men.”
The death penalty is a deeply flawed system. DNA has proven that there are people convicted and sentenced to death who turned out to be innocent. This is a sentence that has been disproportionately applied against people of color and in particular Black and brown men. But Harris’ current campaign platform does not include any mention of capital punishment. Similarly, the Democratic National Committee this year omitted opposition to the death penalty in its platform for the first time since 2012. It’s unclear why Harris and her party have done so in this election cycle. Americans’ support for the death penalty has steadily decreased over the years, and many international rights organizations oppose the punishment and regard it as a violation of human rights. Harris’ silence on the issue, though glaring, stands in contrast with her opponent’s clear position — Donald Trump has long voiced support for the death penalty as part of his “tough on crime” narrative. In the White House, he oversaw more federal executions than any other U.S. president in modern history. He also has repeatedly suggested that drug dealers should face the death penalty and even said that shoplifters should be shot.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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