Kamala Harris’ historical opposition to the death penalty is in question, as the Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign refuses to answer if she will fight to end the practice as president. Her unclear stance comes as Harris has evolved a number of her previously held policy positions and after the Democratic Party amended its official platform, retracting its opposition to the death penalty despite having described the practice as “proven to be a cruel and unusual form of punishment.” Harris’ public record of opposing the death penalty began 15 years ago, when she vowed to “never charge the death penalty” during her inaugural address as San Francisco’s district attorney. While running for president in 2019, she introduced a criminal justice reform plan that included ending capital punishment and her then campaign website reported “Kamala believes the death penalty is immoral, discriminatory, ineffective and a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars.” While Harris’ current campaign remains tight lipped on capital punishment, Donald Trump has promised to expand executions should he be re-elected. Controversy surrounding the death penalty recently resurfaced amid renewed demands to re-investigate death row inmate Marcellius Williams, who was convicted of murdering journalist Felicia Gayle Picus in 1998. Despite Picus’ family and the prosecutor’s objections and demands to have his sentence commuted to life, the state of Missouri executed Williams via lethal injection on Tuesday.
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