Many Americans wrongfully believe that the majority of murder victims’ family members want and need the death penalty. At CCATDP, we know the opposite to be true.
In fact, we work with coalitions of victims’ family members who are opposed to the death penalty and want to see its end in states across this country.
Recently, efforts towards repeal have gained traction in Wyoming, and per usual, there are family members of victims lending their voice to the cause.
Last month, the Wyoming Chapter of CCATDP hosted a local event to provide a space for one of those family members to tell her story. It was a powerful testimonial and one we hope everyone will take the time to watch.
As states across the country grapple with the fiscal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, some Republican state lawmakers are calling for the death penalty to be one of the first budget items to be cut.
Republican lawmakers from three states held an online news conference to discuss why they believe now is the time to end capital punishment in their states. It was moderated by Hannah Cox, National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.
The news conference included:
– Ohio Representative Niraj Antani, R-Miami Township
– Georgia Representative Brett Harrell, R-Snellville
– Wyoming Representative Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne
“These Republican leaders recognize the death penalty wastes millions of dollars each year while failing to provide improved public safety outcomes,” Cox said. “As states are struggling to fund the most basic of needs, this is an obvious cut. Dozens of GOP state lawmakers have sponsored death penalty repeal bills this year because it is so costly, ineffective, error-prone, and does not value life.”
Watch the press conference:
This week, the U.S. federal government resumed executions after a 17 year hiatus at the national level.
A total of five men were given execution dates for this summer, and thus far, two have been carried out. As expected, there have been many procedural, constitutional, and ethical issues surrounding the cases.
Though the government claimed these executions were to be carried out in the name of the victims’ families, the victims’ family members of Daniel Lewis Lee were adamant and vocal in their disapproval of the death penalty from the very beginning. They made numerous attempts to speak out and have their voices respected. Ultimately, they were not even able to be at the execution due to COVID-19 concerns – thus having this last dignity also taken from them by the administration.
Lee’s execution transpired in the early morning hours of Tuesday. He had been strapped to the gurney for hours as courts decided whether or not he could actually be executed. Only a few members of the media were allowed to be present, and were even sent home at one point before being called back.
Today, Kareem Johnson of Pennsylvania became the 170th person exonerated from the nation’s death rows. He is the third death row exoneration of 2020, and the sixth from Pennsylvania.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), Johnson’s case was marked by now familiar problems: official misconduct and junk science.
Read more from DPIC here:
Kareem Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 based upon evidence and argument falsely informing the jury that DNA evidence linked him to the murder. The prosecution, police, and a prosecution forensic analyst told the jury that Johnson shot the victim, Walter Smith, at such close range that Smith’s blood spattered onto a red baseball cap Johnson was wearing that was recovered at the murder scene. Philadelphia homicide prosecutor Michael Barry falsely linked Johnson to the murder through the hat, telling jurors in his opening statement that it “was left at th[e] scene in the middle of the street [and] has Kareem Johnson’s sweat on it and has Walter Smith’s blood on it.”
This week, CCATDP sent a letter to California Governor, Gavin Newsom, imploring him to take action as COVID-19 ravages San Quentin State Prison and other facilities. You can read the full letter below.
June 30, 2020
Dear Governor Newsom:
With the rapid spread of COVID-19 inside San Quentin State Prison and across the state, we call for immediate action to save lives.
The COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin was foreseeable and completely preventable. As Judge Tigar acknowledged on June 19, 2020, during a case management conference in Newsom v. Plata, the transfers from the California Institution for Men to San Quentin were a “failure in policy and planning.” Judge Tigar urged CDCR to act quickly to release people to house arrest, furlough, or to another newly created facility, not to include a currently operating prison. Since those comments on June 19, COVID-19 has spread even more rapidly inside San Quentin. As you acknowledged in your public statements on June 25, 2020, the people at San Quentin are some of the most vulnerable in the State.
At the end of February, Colorado’s legislature voted to repeal the state’s death penalty. The governor is expected to sign the bill within the next week, and the legislation would go into affect on July 1st.
Once these actions occur, Colorado will become the 22nd state to repeal its use of capital punishment. Combined with three other states that have moratoriums in place, that brings the grand total to 25 states without the death penalty. We’ve officially hit a tipping point and half the country has turned away from this antiquated practice in favor of systems that actually protect human life, deter crime, and use taxpayer dollars wisely.
Who will be next? It’s quickly becoming a question of if and not when several other states considering this action will move. Colorado’s neighbors, Wyoming and Utah, are both at its heels and may pursue similar actions soon.
In the meantime, Colorado deserves praise for taking this monumental step forward.
At a press conference today, conservative leaders announced the formation of an Ohio branch of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. The group is a network of conservatives questioning the alignment of capital punishment with their conservative principles
“Conservative Republicans in Ohio are increasingly becoming aware of the failures of an error-prone and expensive death penalty system that does nothing to make citizens of the state safer,” said Hannah Cox, National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP). “Many of Ohio’s leading conservatives, people who have supported the death penalty their entire lives, are now changing their minds based on what they have learned.”
Over 35 conservative leaders from around the state have signed CCATDP’s national Statement of Support to End the Death Penalty:
OHIO CONSERVATIVES ARE RETHINKING THE DEATH PENALTY
ANNOUNCING FORMATION OF NEW GROUP
News Conference in Columbus at (11:00AM) on Tuesday, February 18
Ohio Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a network of conservatives questioning the alignment of capital punishment with their conservative principles, will hold a news conference to officially announce the group’s formation. They also will release a list of prominent Ohio conservatives who endorse repeal of the state’s death penalty. It will take place at the Ladies’ Gallery at the State Capitol in Columbus on Tuesday, February 18, at 11:00 a.m.
Speakers at the news conference will include …
– Rep. Laura Lanese, R-Grove City
– Ross Geiger of Loveland, juror who voted for death
– Jonathan Mann of Columbus, murder victim family member
– Michael Hartley of Columbus, Republican political consultant
– Josh Culling of Toledo, Treasurer of Lucas County Young Republican PAC
– Hannah Cox, National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty
“The waste of taxpayer dollars is one reason why conservative Republican lawmakers in Ohio and across the country are reevaluating the death penalty,” Cox said.
This week, CCATDP Louisiana officially launched, becoming the thirteenth state-based group for the organization!
For years, we have been hearing from conservatives concerned about the death penalty in Louisiana, and we listened. Now, these activists will have a place to organize and come together to educate others in the state about the problems with capital punishment and the reasons conservatives should be against it.
A press conference was held featuring several of the groups advisory committee members who have been helping to lay the groundwork for this group over the past 18 months. King Alexander, and attorney and member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee, Col. Rob Maness, Republican veteran and CEO of GatorPAC, David Marcantel, an attorney and member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee, and Marcus Maldonado, a liberty activist from New Orleans, all gathered to speak to the press on behalf of the group.
You can read more here.
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.
Test the popup