The Death Penalty Needs To Be Banned

On Thursday, October 23, 2025, the state of Alabama plans to execute Anthony Todd Boyd, 54, for the 1993 murder of Gregory Huguley, who prosecutors say was taped up and burned alive over a $200 cocaine debt. Boyd has long maintained his innocence. His conviction was based mainly on testimony from his co-defendants — the same men who received reduced sentences in exchange for testifying against him.

That raises an uncomfortable question: how can the justice system be sure it got it right when a person’s life is on the line — especially when the witnesses have everything to gain by telling authorities what they want to hear?

The Moral Paradox of the Death Penalty

If a person takes a life, we rightly call it murder. But when the state takes a life, we call it justice. Yet the act is fundamentally the same — a deliberate ending of human life.
No man, judge, or governor should have the right to play God. The system claims it’s protecting society, but in truth, it’s committing the same act it condemns — killing in cold blood, only under legal cover.

We don’t fix the crime; we mirror it. We don’t heal the wound; we reopen it.

What If We’re Wrong?

History tells us that innocent people have been executed in America. Once a life is taken, there’s no appeal, no correction, no apology that brings them back.
If tomorrow, new evidence proves Anthony Boyd’s innocence, what could the system do? Issue a statement? Offer a settlement to a grieving family?

You can’t refund a human life.

The Racial Disparity

Black men make up over 40% of America’s death row, and about a third of those executed this year. In many of these cases, the deciding factors are not only guilt or innocence but race, poverty, and legal representation. A system that disproportionately targets one race cannot claim moral authority to take life in the name of justice.

A Nation’s Conscience

America must decide whether it wants to lead with vengeance or with values.
If we truly believe in redemption, fairness, and equality under the law, the death penalty has no place in our democracy.

Until we end it, every execution — whether of Anthony Boyd or anyone else — reminds us that the system’s hands are not clean.