Another One Down: Togo Abolishes Death Penalty

The parliament of the small western African nation of Togo has voted to abolish the the death penalty - making it the 94th country in the world to officially rule out capital punishment.

The country hasn't carried out an execution since 1978, but leaders took the critical step this year to formally end the death penalty. Making it official is important, even in countries and states without active or expected executions, because it sends a message that the death penalty is no longer considered acceptable, rather than allowing the practice to die a quiet death.

"The death penalty is seen as a humiliating, cruel and degrading punishment by the community of nations to which we belong that respect human rights," the Togolese League of Human Rights said in a statement when the bill was first introduced, going on to say that abolishment was important despite a three-decade moratorium because capital punishment "the collective conscience of the Togolese."

Six U.S. states have carried out zero or one executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Like in Togo, it's important that these states - and others - abolish the death penalty completely, rather than keeping a phantom, unused law on the books. New Mexico, which had executed just two people in the last 50 years, led the way by abolishing the death penalty in April. Which states will follow?

Not only does a dormant but present death penalty lie in our "collective conscience," it also costs millions of taxpayer dollars for prosecutors to seek the death penalty in some murder cases, only for the punishment to never be carried out. Life in prison is a more human - and more realistic - punishment, and U.S. states should follow Togo's lead.