My seven years portraying President Bartlet on *The West Wing* fostered deep respect for the presidency and its immense daily challenges. Recent events have reminded me of one of President Bartlet’s toughest fictional decisions—allowing a federal prisoner’s execution—a choice that continues to resonate.
Both my fictional staff and viewers recognized this wasn’t President Bartlet’s finest moment. I even urged the showrunner, Aaron Sorkin, to rewrite the ending.
The on-screen execution was dramatic and believable in 2000 when the episode aired, as capital punishment enjoyed widespread American support. Many leaders, including presidents, held similar views. Just years prior, Bill Clinton interrupted his presidential campaign to oversee the execution of a Black man with an IQ of 70 on Arkansas’s death row.
President Biden can make a far better decision by commuting all federal death sentences. He has compelling reasons. We now understand the flaws in the death penalty system better. These include inadequate consideration of brain damage and mental illness, prosecutorial misconduct, deficient defense, and the unacceptable risk of executing innocent individuals. Furthermore, a significant portion of those on federal death row were very young—21 or younger—when they committed their crimes.
The death penalty’s continued use is increasingly questioned across the political spectrum. We now know more about its inherent fallibility, its immense financial cost, and the profound psychological toll it takes on executioners. My political experience, both on *The West Wing* and in real life, teaches me that a policy with such extreme costs and minimal benefit is a failure.
My opposition to the death penalty isn’t recent or theoretical. Childhood concerns about the government executing an innocent person for political gain sparked my questioning of its morality.
In the 1970s, I played two executed men: a Korean War veteran in *Badlands* (1973) and a soldier executed for desertion in *The Execution of Private Slovik* (1974). These roles highlighted the death penalty’s dehumanizing impact on all involved.
Most importantly, I’ve corresponded with and visited a death row inmate for two decades. I’ve witnessed his deep remorse and understanding of his victim’s suffering, his religious reflection, and his transformation. This demonstrates humanity’s capacity for growth and change.
President Biden made history in 2020 as the first American president to [action omitted]. He can now cement a legacy of justice and compassion by commuting all federal death sentences, with the backing of Catholic leaders, corrections officials, prosecutors, and civil and human rights organizations. He has the chance to save real lives. I urge him to do so.