Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday came out in support of Hillary Clinton’s criminal justice reform plan, but he also jabbed his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination on her support for the death penalty.
Sanders said any “real” reform on the issue is incomplete without prohibiting capital punishment.
{mosads}“Real criminal justice reform must have the United States join every other major democracy in eliminating the death penalty,” Sanders said in a statement.
Clinton said Wednesday that the death penalty should be “limited and rare.”
Sanders also advocated for less restriction on marijuana consumption and possession. That stance will be absent from Clinton’s plan, which focuses on issues of racial justice.
He backed the former secretary of State’s call for fairer sentencing in cases related to crack cocaine.
“Secretary Clinton is right. We must eliminate sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine,” he said in the statement. “That is why I have repeatedly voted in favor of addressing this disparity.”
Clinton is expected to call for an end to racial profiling in law enforcement when she unveils her criminal justice plan at a rally in Atlanta on Friday, several weeks after she met with leaders from the Black Lives Matter movement.
Clinton leads the primary race with 49 percent support, according to a RealClearPolitics average of national polls. Sanders is in second, with 25.5 percent.