South Carolina carried out its first execution in 13 years on Sept. 20, when it executed Freddie Owens. Five more death row inmates in the state are expected to be executed in the next six months, and it's likely that each will be given the choice between dying by the electric chair, firing squad or lethal injection.
Just a month before Owens’ execution, Democrats removed a call to abolish the federal death penalty from their 2024 platform, a shift from 2016, when they first advocated for its end. President Biden, who was the first U.S. president to publicly oppose capital punishment, has had a mixed record since taking office. He declined to support a 2021 bill to prohibit it, but his Department of Justice has paused federal executions while also pursuing the death penalty in a handful of high-profile cases.
Vice President Harris’ campaign website does not reference the death penalty, and her record is also mixed; she initially opposed it as San Francisco’s district attorney in 2004, but later defended it as California’s attorney general. Former President Trump, on the other hand, has made his position clear. During his term in office, there were 13 executions, the most of any president in at least a century. On the campaign trail, he has advocated for the use of the death penalty in drug trafficking cases.
Meanwhile, both candidates for North Carolina governor support the death penalty, with Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson campaigning to reinstate it for those who kill law enforcement. North Carolina has not executed an inmate since 2006, due to legal challenges and difficulty procuring the drugs needed for lethal injection.
On the next Charlotte Talks, we discuss death row in the Carolinas, the political appetite for capital punishment and whether there is a humane way to execute someone. We’ll also hear from Edward Chapman, who spent 13 years on death row before being exonerated in 2008.
GUESTS:
Elizabeth Bruenig, staff writer at The Atlantic
Jeffrey Collins, reporter at the Associated Press, covering South Carolina
Gretchen Engel, capital defense attorney and executive director of The Center for Death Penalty Litigation
