We are a statewide group of diverse communities and individuals working to abolish the death penalty.

Nevada Needs to Examine the Death Penalty

Nevada has one of the highest per capita death row populations in America.  Isn't it time we examined our death penalty system, and whether it is appropriate punishment in the 21st century?

Consider these facts:

The Death Penalty is Arbitrary and Unfair

The death penalty is like a lottery in which race and gender, politics, prosecurtors' decisions, geography and money often play a more decisive part in who receives a death sentence than the circumstances of the crime itself.

The death penalty is unfair because it discriminates against those who are poor.  Of those sentenced to death in the U.S. 95% could not afford their own attorneys.

The Death Penalty is Irreversible

Over 130 death row inmates have been released from American prisons since 1973 because they were found to be innocent. 

The death penalty system is based on the efforts and decisions of people who may be prejudiced, incompetent, lazy, mistaken or dishonest.  When a person's life depends on fallible judges, prosecutors, juries, defense attorneys, witnesses and police, we are always at risk of executing an innocent person.

The Death Penalty is Racially Discriminatory

The death penalty is racially biased.  Nevada's juries, judges and attorneys are overwhelmingly white.  However, almost 40% of Nevada's death row population is African American, although only 8% of Nevada's general population is African American.

Nationally, the U.S. General Accounting Office has found "a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing and imposition of the death penalty."

The Death Penalty is Not a Deterrent

No data has conclusively demonstrated that the threat of the death penalty deters murders.  A recent 20-year survey found that the homicide rate in states with the death penalty is 50% to 100% higher than in states without the death penalty.

Recent FBI data shows that 10 of the 12 states without the death penalty have homicide rates below the national average.

The Death Penalty Violates Fundamental Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution

The death penalty violates the right to life set forth in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.  It also constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment.

The Coalition believes that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Civilized nations have no death penalty.  The nations that execute prisoners most frequently include China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Taiwan, Sierra Leone, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Kyrgistan.  The U.S. is the ONLY western, industrialized democracy to retain the death penalty.

The Death Penalty is Costly

Numerous studies have shown that the death penalty is a far more expensive system than one whose maximum penalty is life in prison.

The death penalty diverts scarce government resources from genuine crime control efforts.

Help us Abolish Nevada's Death Penalty!