The Death Penalty: Still Wrong

On 2/6/2025, CBS News published an article with the headline “Alabama executes man with nitrogen gas for 1991 murder and rape,” which discusses the execution of Demetrius Terrence Frazier. What I find of particular note, however, is this paragraph from the very end of the piece:

“In Alabama, we enforce the law. You don’t come to our state and mess with our citizens and get away with it. Rapists and murderers are not welcome on our streets, and tonight, justice was carried out for Pauline Brown and her loved ones,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement.

For the record, Frazier had not been “on the streets” of Alabama for a long time by the time of his execution. Frazier had been in prison for over three decades by the time of his death, and he was serving his sentence in Michigan until he was transferred to Alabama at the request of then-governor Robert Bentley, who himself pleaded guilty to two violations campaign finance law, leading to his resignation in 2017.

This is not the first time Governor Ivey has found herself in controversy over use of capital punishment, which makes sense given her unapologetic support for the process. Back in 2020, Ivey faced protests over the execution of Nathaniel Woods, a man who had previously been convicted for the killing of three police officers despite not actually being responsible for the murders…