NVCADP Letter

With the 81st legislative session of the state in full-swing, the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty (NVCADP), along with its partners, recently sent a letter to urge legislators to support ending the death penalty in the state. 

In a letter to both the Nevada Legislature and the Governor, NVCADP outlines several reasons why the archaic practice of capital punishment needs to be abolished in Nevada. 

Reasons to Abolish the Death Penalty

To begin, NVCADP cites a poll conducted by David Binder Research, which revealed that most Nevadans want alternatives to the death penalty, like life without parole.

One of the reasons for this support includes acknowledging that the death penalty is “a relic of our nation’s racist past.” 

Racial Bias

According to the letter, racial prejudice plagues the criminal justice system with high costs and errors. It mentioned a review of studies focusing on racial bias within the American death penalty system. 

“[This] revealed 96% exhibit bias based upon race-of-victim, race-of-defendant or both,” the letter states. “Nearly 40% of Nevada’s death row population is Black, despite Black people accounting for only 10% of Nevada’s general population.”

Wrongful Convictions

Another reason is that it poses the risk of executing innocent people. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, “Since 1973, more than 170 people who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated.” 

The letter states that “Innocent people can and do end up on death row. People such as Roberto Miranda and Ron Milligan were released from Nevada’s death row with grave concerns about their guilt. These men lost decades of their lives to a system plagued with errors.”

Even one innocent person wrongly convicted or executed is too many. To make matters worse, Black death row exonerees make up the majority of exonerations, totaling 99 out of 185, according to the DPIC.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence

On top of this, studies on the death penalty have shown that it doesn’t reduce crime, nor does it make the public safer.

A Costly Practice

If that wasn’t enough reason to repeal the death penalty, the policy costs the state millions of dollars a year and costs the families of victims their closure. That’s because appealed cases continue to reopen their emotional wounds, never allowing them to heal. 

Given these arguments, “the time to repeal Nevada’s death penalty is now.”

Hitting on the monetary aspect of repealing the death penalty, the letter specifically hits the state’s budget crisis. “As Nevada legislators work to balance the budget and reevaluate our state’s priorities, the money spent on capital punishment is astounding.”

The letter then cites a study the Nevada Legislature conducted in 2013. Their findings determined that just deciding to seek the death penalty “adds more than half a million dollars to the cost of the case.” This, regardless of whether the jury returns a death sentence. 

That study also found that just over half of the state’s death sentences are reversed on appeal for legal reasons, like prosecutorial misconduct.

“It is a system that is deeply flawed.” – NVCADP letter.

Given the state’s precarious financial situation, the Coalition is pushing for abolition to free up money for the state. 

Addressing the Trauma of Families of Victims

Touching more on the impact of the death penalty on victims’ families as the legal process proceeds, the letter explains how they’re left in “legal limbo” waiting for an execution that might not even happen.

Often taking decades to litigate, death penalty cases take much longer than those seeking life without parole. In the last 40-50 years, the state’s only carried out a dozen executions out of 200 death sentences. 

Moreover, the letter states, “This process often re-traumatizes the families of victims who are forced to relive the violent loss of their loved one over and over in court, with no guarantee the sentence will be carried out.”

Even if it weren’t for the lack of efficiency in this system, obtaining the drugs needed for lethal injection is difficult, if not impossible. As a result, no executions have been carried out in Nevada in the past 15 years. Meaning after all the time and money spent on a death sentence, it may never even happen. 

NVCADP Closing Statements

In conclusion, NVCADP closes its letter by saying, “ The death penalty does not serve Nevadans, is deeply and irreparably flawed, and offers a false promise to victims’ families. …We must cut this wasteful spending and invest instead in programs that Nevadans actually need.”

In addition, many local and state organizations have signed this letter to support NVCADP’s effort and add their voice to the document. This also includes our own organization, Millennials in Motion Magazine. See the list of other co-signers below. 

To learn more about NVCADP, visit their website, and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

To sign their petition to repeal the death penalty go here.

Co-signers to the Letter o Repeal the Death Penalty

Abolitionist Action Committee	Life, Peace & Justice Commission of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Reno
Alternatives to Violence Project Nevada	Marc Picker, Washoe County Alternate Public Defender
Amanda Cuevas MSW, LSW, Social Worker	Millennials in Motion Magazine
American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada	Move Nevada Forward
Battle Born Progress	Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice
Be the Change Project	Nevada Strong Families
Chris Giunchigliani, former County Commissioner and Assemblywoman	National Association of Public Defense
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty	National Alliance On Mental Illness Southern Nevada
Culinary Workers Union Local 226	National Association of Social Workers – Nevada Chapter
Darin Imlay	National Lawyers Guild – Las Vegas Chapter
Death Row Support Project	Ozvaldo Fumo
Death Row Expressions Inc	Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
Death Penalty Action	Red Rock Democratic Club, Board of Directors
Drew Johnson, National Center for Public Policy Research (affiliation for identification only)	Rene Valladares and Lori Teicher, Federal Public Defender, District of Nevada
DRG Consulting, LLC	Reno Friends Meeting–Quakers
Equal Justice USA	Reno/Sparks NAACP
Father Chuck Durante, Chair of the Life Peace & Justice Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Reno, Nevada	Return Strong! Families United for Justice for the Incarcerated
Faith in Action Nevada	Sheila Leslie, former State Senator and Assembly woman
Faith Organizing Alliance	Temple Sinai, Reno
FUSED UNR	The Heart of Reno
Fifth Sun Project	The Episcopal Diocese of Nevada
Innocence Project (National)	UNR Young Democrats Club
John Arrascada	Wild & Free: A Battle Born Podcast
John Piro, Clark County Chief Deputy Public Defender	Witness to Innocence
Jonell Thomas	Women’s Radio(R)
Journey of Hope… From Violence to Healing	Young Democratic Socialists of Reno
Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America	Vote Nevada
L’Chaim: Jews against the Death Penalty	8th Amendment Project