Capital punishment ignored

There has been almost no meaningful political conversation this election about capital punishment. Why have American voters been content to allow another election season to pass by without addressing the broken death penalty system that continues in our country in 2016? This is especially puzzling in the view of the reduction in public support for the death penalty, which is at a 40-year low. In 1996, 78 percent of Americans supported the death penalty. In 2015, only 56 percent were in favor.

In 2016, mass incarceration, police violence toward communities of color and the failed war on drugs have entered the speeches of both the Republican and Democratic candidates. It is a human-rights violation, it is cruel and unusual punishment, it is an ineffective deterrent to crime, it is racist, it is classist, it is a judgment decided by humans, and therefore imperfect, and it is incredibly expensive, they would force the candidates to address what they will do to fix the system.

The fact that it continues to exist in this country, in 2016, matters. It is time for politicians and the public to give this costly punishment a hard look. Voters need to make that clear.

Jami Warner

Spokane