US Sen. Feingold (D-WI) Introduces Death Penalty Abolition Bill
US Sen. Feingold (D-WI) has introduced a bill to abolish the federal death penalty, S. 650. The bill has no-cosponsors.
“Feingold’s Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 would put an immediate halt to federal executions and forbid the use of the death penalty as a sentence for violations of federal law. The use of the death penalty has been questioned by a range of prominent voices across the country, recently repealed in New Mexico and New Jersey, and abolished by 123 countries around the world. Feingold’s bill would stop executions on the federal level, which are part of a death penalty system that has proven to be ineffective, wrought with racial disparities, and alarmingly costly,” says a press release from Feingold’s office obtained by APN.
As previously reported by APN, State. Sen. Vincent Fort has introduced a similar bill at the State level.
“In 2007, Feingold chaired a Senate Judiciary Committee, Constitution Subcommittee hearing on oversight of the federal death penalty that highlighted the lack of transparency at the Department of Justice in the decision-making process about the death penalty and continuing problems of racial disparities in the federal system,” the release states.