Merrick Garland changes tune on death penalty
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Before Merrick Garland was President Biden's attorney general nominee (and a blockaded pick for the Supreme Court), he was a top U.S. prosecutor. That's where he led the prosecution of high-profile domestic terrorism cases, including some where suspects received the death penalty.
But in the years since the U.S. government halted federal executions, Garland has "had a great pause" regarding the punishment, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee in his Monday confirmation hearing. He has particularly grown concerned about the exoneration of death row and other inmates years after their conviction, and that it has an "enormously disparate impact on Black Americans and communities of color." "A terrible thing occurs when somebody is convicted of a crime that they did not commit, and the most terrible thing happens if someone is executed for a crime they did not commit," Garland said.
Judge Merrick Garland says the federal death penalty gives him "great pause" because of the racial disparity and number of exonerations that come from death penalty cases. https://t.co/WKrQnamDww pic.twitter.com/XtJPxRTfw7
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) February 22, 2021
Garland went on to tell Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) there's "no question that there's disparate treatment in our justice system," which "I think does arise out of implicit bias." That is apparent in America's "mass incarceration," something Garland said can be rectified by "focusing our attention on violent crimes" instead of "something like marijuana possession."
.@SenBooker: "Does our justice system treat people equally in this country at this point."
Attorney General Nominee Merrick Garland: "Sadly, and it's plain to me, that it does not."
Full video here: https://t.co/7fkef7A3b2 pic.twitter.com/hXzwBt2HdQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 22, 2021
That led to a heated discussion between Garland and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on just what systemic bias means.
Exchange between @SenJohnKennedy and Attorney General Nominee Merrick Garland on Systemic Racism. pic.twitter.com/wjHSI0QMk8
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 22, 2021
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