Law enforcement see eye to eye on death penalty

A couple of weeks ago EJUSA co-sponsored an event at the National Press Club bringing together members of law enforcement from Europe and the U.S. to talk about the death penalty.

Europe doesn’t have a death penalty, so we were eager to hear what they had to say about maintaining public safety without it. We learned that the European law enforcement officers shared many of the same concerns about the death penalty that we do.

England’s Former Detective Superintendent Bob Denmark investigated over 100 homicides in the U.K. He shared an experience he had in which he felt certain that a defendant was guilty but was later proven to be wrong.

Portuguese Public Prosecutor António Cluny said his country prosecuted terrorism more effectively because it didn’t have the death penalty. The death penalty, he said, would have in fact only complicated their ability to deal with terrorism, making martyrs out of the terrorists and potentially blocking extradition of terrorists.

On the U.S. side, police Chief James Abbott of New Jersey agreed with his European counterparts that the death penalty was unnecessary. Abbott said he used to support the death penalty, but learned from murder victims’ family members that there is, “no closure in capital cases. Just more attention to the murderer and less to the victim.”

EJUSA Director of Organizing, Laura Porter, was on hand to listen to the dialog. “There were so many commonalities between the officers,” she said. “Each participant had their distinct experiences but we had international agreement that the death penalty is a poor use of resources.”