Alternative Nobel Prizes awarded: Lawyer: Trump uses the death penalty

Thursday 03 December 2020

Awarded alternative Nobel Prizes
Lawyer: Trump uses the death penalty

Bryan Stevenson sees the fact that US President Trump is once again carrying out federal death sentences as a “political tool”. The civil rights activist has been fighting the death penalty for decades. For this he receives the Alternative Nobel Prize. He shares it with three other award winners, one of whom is in prison.

US civil rights activist Bryan Stevenson, who was awarded the alternative Nobel Prize this year, has accused President Donald Trump of exploiting the death penalty. The federal death penalty is clearly “used politically,” the lawyer said. “It’s not credible if it’s a political tool. And the past few months have shown it’s a political tool.”

The Trump administration resumed carrying out federal death sentences in the summer after a 17-year hiatus. Eight inmates have since been executed. Five more executions are expected by the end of Trump’s term on January 20. The president-elect is a supporter of the death penalty and during the election campaign he called himself the “president of law and order”. Election winner Joe Biden, on the other hand, wants to abolish the death penalty at the federal level and create incentives for states to follow suit. It is unusual for prisoners to be executed at the federal level during the transition from one US government to the next.

Stevenson shares the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in the evening, with democracy activist Alex Bjaljazki from Belarus, Iranian women’s rights activist Nasrin Sotudeh and civil rights activist Lottie Cunningham Wren from Nicaragua. Only Belyatsky could personally receive his award. Sotudeh was sent back to prison and sent her thanks as an audio message. The award is a great honor for her, she said in it. “In these difficult conditions, it gives me and my family new energy to continue on my path”, his words were translated. The Iranian regime sees her as an enemy of the state and has been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.

One in nine convicted innocent

The Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, is awarded annually by the Right Livelihood Foundation. Honor the people who work for peace and a more just and sustainable world, often at high risk. This also applies to this year’s award winners. “Everyone is fighting against the threat to democracy and giving others the courage to stand up,” said Ole von Uexküll, the foundation’s executive director.

Like Cunningham Wren, Stevenson was unable to be personally present at the awards ceremony in Stockholm due to the crown. The 61-year-old has been fighting the death penalty in the United States for decades. “For every nine people we have executed in the United States, there is one person on death row who has been identified as innocent,” the 61-year-old said. This should effectively lead to an immediate stop of executions. “Like in aviation. If a plane crashes, we need to find out why. We don’t allow planes to fly that long.”

Racism in the classroom

The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative views discrimination against African Americans in the US justice system as a central problem. This isn’t just about police officers, as Stevenson said ahead of Black Lives Matter’s protests against police violence against blacks. Prosecutors and judges may also harbor racist prejudices. “It is assumed that people with black or brown skin are dangerous and guilty,” said Stevenson, himself an African American. “This makes them very vulnerable in a very aggressive and predatory justice system. Many blacks are wrongfully accused and arrested, wrongfully convicted.”

The Harvard University elite law graduate had the experience firsthand: “I have already been pulled out of my car and threatened by police officers who said they were shooting me in the brain.” The United States should address the problem of racism much more comprehensively than before, Stevenson asks.