Sanders doubles down on opposition to death penalty

by Jordain Carney - 10/29/15 2:52 PM ET

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday said the United States should abolish the death penalty, doubling down on his long-standing opposition to capital punishment.

“I believe it is time for the United States of America to join every other Western, industrialized country on Earth in saying no to the death penalty,” Sanders, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, said from the Senate floor. “We are all shocked and disgusted by the horrific murders that we see in this country, seemingly every week. And that is precisely why we should abolish the death penalty.”

{mosads}He made a similar push during a separate interview with “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts,” adding that “I think many of us understand that a lot of innocent people, often people of color, have been executed who in fact were not guilty of the charges made against them.”

Sanders’s comments come after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that while the death penalty should be “limited and rare,” she didn’t support abolishing it.

The Vermont senator has previously spoken out against the practice. He said during a May interview that on the Thom Hartmann radio show, “I’m against capital punishment in general.”

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a fellow 2016 Democratic nominee, quickly highlighted his opposition to the death penalty after Clinton’s comments.

“The death penalty is racially-biased, ineffective deterrent to crime, and we must abolish it. Our nation should not be in the company of Iran, Iraq, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen in carrying out the majority of public executions,” he said in a statement.

Tags Bernie Sanders Capital punishment death penalty Hillary Clinton Martin O'Malley