Bernie Sanders had a powerfully simple message about the death penalty

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 5 February 2016

After Hillary Clinton said during the MSNBC Democratic debate that she reluctantly supports capital punishment, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drew a contrast. "I just don't want to see government be part of killing, that's all," he said.

Sanders added that he could understand Clinton's stance, saying that "all of us know that we are seeing in recent years horrible, horrible crimes and it's hard to imagine how people can bomb and kill 168 people in Oklahoma City or the Boston Marathon bombing," but too many "innocent people, including minorities, African-Americans, have been executed when they were not guilty." He also said that the world already has "so much violence and killing," and he doesn't believe "the government should be part of the killing. When somebody commits any of these terrible crimes that we have seen, you lock them up and you toss away the key, they're never going to get out. I just never want to see government in the killing."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.