Current and former law enforcement officers, prosecutors,
and corrections officials from around the country have come together to share
their concerns about the administration of the death penalty in America and to
help policymakers explore alternatives to it, according to a press release from The Constitution Project.
"Law enforcement officers, prosecutors and corrections
officials are some of the people most familiar with the way the death penalty
is carried out, yet our voices are not often heard in the discussions about
it. Problems with capital punishment are increasingly on the public's
mind, and we want to make sure our unique perspective is heard and
considered," said Mark Earley, one of the co-chairs of Public Safety Officials on the Death Penalty.
Earley oversaw 36 executions while serving as Attorney
General for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1998 to 2001. He was
president of Prison Fellowship, a prominent national organization dedicated to
ministering to prison inmates and their families, from 2002 to 2011.
While each member of the group has their own concerns about
the death penalty, most are apprehensive about the prospect of executing an innocent person.
"We have seen firsthand that the criminal justice
system, like every other human endeavor, can make mistakes. Executing
even one innocent person is one too many," said Kathleen Dennehy, another
of the group's co-chairs. "And, as career public safety officials
and professionals, we know that when the innocent are wrongfully convicted and
executed, the guilty go free," she added.
She pointed to a report released earlier in the month by the
National Registry of Exonerations showing that a record 149 people were
exonerated in the United States in 2015 -- including five from death row.
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