ABSTRACT

The anti-death penalty movement has historically been led by lawyers, and the prevailing view is that it will be lawyers who secure nationwide abolition through the United States Supreme Court. This chapter highlights how the argument relating to the costs of capital punishment has pushed some towards the abolitionist position. Given the generally accepted view that "experiential abolitionists" were vital to the successes of the slavery abolitionists, it makes sense for today's anti-death penalty movement to place the voice of experience front and center of abolitionist efforts. While crime victims and "communities of color" are indeed such voices, exonerees from death row have been particularly adept at advancing the abolitionist cause, and more recently former executioners and corrections officials have taken up a more visible role in anti-death penalty efforts. The chapter draws on the term "experiential abolitionists", bearing in mind the experiences of those former slaves and slaveholders who joined the abolitionist ranks in the antebellum era.