Today, Representative Adriano Espaillat sent a letter urging President Biden to commute the sentences of the forty individuals currently in federal custody on death row.
“More than half of the forty inmates on federal death row are Black or Latino and were afflicted by the systemic issues that continue to plague our country — including racial bias, inadequate legal resources, and the disproportionate arrest rates and sentencing outcomes for minority communities — and more historic challenges, such as the lack of forensic technology and practices at the time of the detainee’s sentencing. Several of the inmates on federal death row today were convicted and sentenced decades ago by juries that were exclusively white, despite the wide availability of jurors from Black, Latino, and Asian communities,” stated Espaillat in the letter .
“Over the past fifty years, both the Black and Latino communities are overrepresented amongst the federal death row population in comparison to their share of the national population… and the death penalty represents the most inhumane, and destructive form of sentencing.
“For the reasons outlined above, we emphasize the urgent need to use your constitutional authority to commute the 40 individuals currently on federal death row. Taking this action is essential to uphold our nation’s moral integrity and justice system,” the letter concluded.
Click here to read this letter in its entirety.
Representative Espaillat
Representative Espaillat is the first Dominican American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and his congressional district includes Harlem, East Harlem, West Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Inwood, Marble Hill and the north-west Bronx. First elected to Congress in 2016, Representative Espaillat is serving his fourth term in Congress. Representative Espaillat currently serves as a member of the influential U.S. House Committee on Appropriations responsible for funding the federal government’s vital activities and serves as Ranking Member of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the committee during the 118th Congress. He is also a member of the House Budget Committee and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), where he serves in a leadership role as the Deputy Chair as well as Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI). Rep. Espaillat is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and serves as a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus. To find out more about Rep. Espaillat, visit online at https://espaillat.house.gov/.
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