Objecting to the Justice Department's reinstating the federal death penalty, legal expert Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV that President Donald Trump has unwound his progress with criminal justice reform.
"I think he's done a good job in trying to moderate some of the excesses of criminal justice," Dershowitz told Thursday's "Newsmax Now." "I am not sure it's his policy or the Justice Department's policy, but I don't think it's going to make America any safer."
Dershowitz, a self-proclaimed "life-long opponent of the death penalty," said he helped write the initial draft that led to the death penalty previously being found unconstitutional.
"They were clever to pick the most heinous crimes, but we know that the death penalty is not reserved for the most heinous of crimes," Dershowitz said. "It's reserved for people who are poor, who didn't have good lawyers."
He added to host John Bachman the death penalty has a racial and socio-economic bias, too.
"I've never lost a client to the death penalty," Dershowitz continued. "No good lawyer I know has ever lost a client to the death penalty. Mostly it's a penalty for being very poor, very unpopular, and having a range of other factors. . . .
"But I don't think we're able to administer the death penalty fairly in the United States today."
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