The League of Women Voters of Missouri urges Attorney General Jay Nixon to support continuation of the moratorium on the death penalty. The recent court decision on Missouri’s lethal injection is permissive, not mandatory.
It just makes it allowable to execute someone in Missouri. It does not make the application of the death penalty more just, fair or equitable.
It is unfortunate that the bill that called for a moratorium and a thorough study of the death penalty did not pass in the last legislative session. Such a study would show whether all the variables such as race, education, economic status and geography favored one individual over another. If the death penalty is resumed, it should, at the very least, be applied so that no innocent person is executed, a standard that is difficult to meet.
The League of Women Voters urges Nixon to rethink his position on the death penalty, support a continued moratorium and wait until all the unanswered questions of its application in Missouri are answered.
Jo Sapp is the president of the League of Women Voters of Missouri, Columbia