The Reading Eagle’s Nicole Brambila authored an article over the weekend examining whether the death penalty was a dying sentence. She interviewed me for the story and highlighted the burgeoning conservative opposition to capital punishment. She wrote,
The battle lines appear to be shifting. In the clash over the death penalty, the lines had long been drawn between conservatives and liberals. But now, with mounting fiscal concerns among conservatives, the lines are becoming blurred. For the first time in four decades, the two sides in the death penalty conflict are finding common ground, even if they are arriving at the need for abolition for different reasons.”
We have to look at it pragmatically,” said Marc Hyden, national advocacy coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a network originally formed in Montana in 2010. “Do you trust an error-prone government to properly and efficiently execute the program?”
Increasingly, the answer is no. Hyden described capital punishment in the U.S. as “an utterly failed government program,” a sentiment echoed by others. He added, “Being against the death penalty isn’t just for bleeding-heart liberals.”