The US Supreme Court recently ruled that Florida’s death penalty scheme is unconstitutional, saying it grants the judge, rather than the jury, too much authority in deciding who receives a death sentence. Until this glaring flaw is rectified, Florida doesn’t have a functioning death penalty. This has sent Florida legislators into a frenzy as they rush to mend this defect, but it is also providing a valuable opportunity to change one of Florida’s most bizarre laws.
Currently, the Sunshine State has the lowest standard in the country for sentencing someone to die. While most states require juries to unanimously recommend a death sentence, Florida, along with Delaware and Alabama, lacks this requirement. This may change very soon, however, as there is a bill making its way through the Florida legislature to require a unanimous jury decision before a death sentence is handed down.
Meanwhile, in Missouri, interest in ending the death penalty has grown dramatically. The newly-launched Missouri Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty group helped bolster conservatives in and out of the legislature to voice their concerns about their death penalty. A repeal bill passed out of a Missouri Senate committee – a huge step forward in a state that has had several executions in recent years.
Conservatives Concerned in the Media
The death penalty has been making national news, and once again, CCATDP has been in the midst of the discussion. Here are some of our favorites:
• I penned op-eds for numerous media outlets, including the Washington Examiner, the Savannah Morning News, and Voices of Liberty, to discuss why the death penalty is slowly dying out and why conservatives are increasingly turning against capital punishment.
• I was also a guest on the Wells Report Radio Show in Dallas, Texas, and the Allman in the Morning show in St. Louis, Missouri, to outline the conservative case against the death penalty.
• We were also included in articles from Raw Story, the Guardian, and one of our close allies recently wrote an article calling on Florida to require unanimous jury consent.
Upcoming
For the fourth year in a row, CCATDP will return to where it all started for us, CPAC. We will be in exhibitor space #410 at the perennial conservative conference to raise awareness around the death penalty’s innumerable failures. Tickets are still available for CPAC and can be purchased here. We hope you’ll drop by to say hello!
Call to action
As you know, conservatives and libertarians from across the United States are uniting against the death penalty at an unprecedented pace, but our work is far from done. We plan on publishing a list of state and local leaders who have signed our Statement of Support to End the Death Penalty, and we want you to be a part of it.
Are you a conservative or a libertarian who has held a political leadership position (such as a YAL chapter chairman, GOP treasurer, tea party founder, conservative state representative, etc.)? If so, then please consider adding your name to our Statement of Support to End the Death Penalty here.
When we release the entire list, it will be further proof that the national dialogue is changing, and the tide is turning against the death penalty. Thank you for your support, and please share our statement with your conservative, politically-active friends and family members.