The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) recently released its annual death penalty report, and their findings were incredibly encouraging. Death sentences, executions, and support for the death penalty are either at or near historic lows. The death penalty has also been increasingly relegated to a super minority of states and counties, as most localities eschew its use.
In 2017, there were unfortunately 23 executions, but this total was the second lowest in about a quarter century. Moreover, roughly 75% of these executions occurred in only 4 states. The overwhelming majority of states simply do not execute inmates.
There were an estimated 39 death sentences delivered last year, which is the second lowest number in the modern era. Over 30% of these came from just 3 counties, while the other 3,140 counties accounted for the remaining 27 death sentences. This is further evidence that capital punishment is being confined to a few, isolated locations.
The death penalty’s decline can also plainly be seen in what was once considered capital punishment’s epicenter – Harris County, TX.
One day after we released our report showing a surge of Republican death penalty repeal sponsors, more good news came out. Every October, Gallup releases its annual survey on death penalty support in the U.S. For the past several years, they have found support for capital punishment to be at or near its lowest point in 40-years. Now that support has declined even further.
According to the 2017 Gallup poll, support for capital punishment is the lowest it has been since 1972 – a 45-year low. While the firm found that 55% of Americans still favor the death penalty, it’s down from a high of 80% in 1994. They also discovered that Republican support for capital punishment dropped 10 points over the past year, bringing it to the lowest it has been since before 1988.
Gallup’s poll is important because it shows long-term historical trends that reveal how Americans are turning against the death penalty. But Gallup’s numbers may actually be inflated, since other polling firms have shown support for the death penalty to be even lower.
Following the release of our new report highlighting the surge of Republican death penalty repeal sponsors, CCATDP’s Heather Beaudoin was a guest on the Christian Broadcasting Network to discuss the reason why so many conservatives have turned against the death penalty. You can watch the segment below:
CCATDP formed in 2013 to shatter the myth of universal conservative death penalty support. With your help, I believe that we have accomplished that goal. Grassroots conservatives and many well-known political thought leaders are now openly questioning capital punishment with great frequency.
A mere four years since our founding, we have proof that conservative lawmakers are also increasingly supporting death penalty repeal. Today at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., we unveiled our report, “The Right Way,” which demonstrates this point.
Joined by current and former Republican death penalty sponsors, I spoke at the press event and highlighted our exciting findings. From the year 2000 to 2012, the annual number of Republican state lawmakers sponsoring death penalty repeal bills never rose above single digits. However, in 2013 (the year CCATDP launched), the number of Republican sponsors more than doubled to 20.
The numbers have stayed in the double digits ever since. In fact, in 2016, ten times as many Republicans sponsored repeal bills than in 2000.
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty hosted a news conference featuring state Republican lawmakers who have sponsored bills to repeal the death penalty in Montana, Utah, Nebraska, and Washington State. They unveiled findings of a new report, “The Right Way,” which documents the important role played by Republicans in the decline of America’s death penalty since the start of the 21st century.
Watch the press conference here:
Earlier this year, I started working at Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty through the Charles Koch Institute Fellowship Program, and because of this, I was to table with CCATDP’s Marc Hyden at Young Americans for Liberty’s national convention (YALCon 2017). While this was the 5th year in a row that CCATDP was a sponsor, at first, I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of reception we’d receive at a conference attended by so many of my conservative and libertarian peers, but my concerns were quickly assuaged.
Among the event’s speakers were nationally known leaders who are staunchly opposed to the death penalty, including Fox News legal analyst Judge Napolitano, Larry Reed of the Foundation for Economic Education, and former Libertarian Presidential candidate Austin Petersen. The convention also generally hosts Dr. Ron Paul who endorsed us a few years ago. All of which seemed to bode well for us at the conference.
The event began on July 26 in Reston, VA. As we tabled at the conference, hundreds of attendees shuffled into the convention hall and a steady stream of activists dropped by our booth.
Florida’s death penalty system has come to epitomize the typical big, dysfunctional government program. It is marred by failures, including wrongful convictions and rising costs. It fails to adequately protect society, often harms murder victims’ families, and the Sunshine State’s capital sentencing scheme has been declared unconstitutional twice in just the last year. As a result, roughly 200 people on death row must be resentenced.
As the death penalty’s many shortcomings have come to light, an increasing number of notable conservatives from across the country have turned against it. Many in Florida have taken note of CCATDP’s activities and reached out to me, asking how they can become more involved.
Consequently, I helped organize a press conference on June 14, where the Florida Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty officially launched, making it the 12th state-based CCATDP group so far. Conservative leaders from around the state passionately explained why the death penalty is inconsistent with conservatism, and they called on prosecutors to reject death sentences for those whose cases are now in limbo.
Questioning a system marked by inefficiency, inequity, and inaccuracy.
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is a network of political and social conservatives who question the alignment of capital punishment with conservative principles and values.
We are a project of Equal Justice USA, a national organization working to end the death penalty in the United States.
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