As Oklahoma’s death penalty continues its descent into chaos, conservative icon Richard Viguerie weighed in on the state’s capital punishment program. Citing wrongful convictions, botched executions, and Oklahoma’s repeated attempts to execute Richard Glossip despite a lack of evidence, Viguerie called on the Sooner State to repeal the death penalty. He said,
“Oklahoma’s systemic failures and Glossip’s case in particular are emblematic of what is wrong with America’s death penalty. The death penalty’s problems are a confluence of things that all Americans loathe: a big, broken, costly and dangerous government program prone to mistakes…”
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Conservatives Concerned in the media
CCATDP and our allies were back in the media exposing the death penalty’s many failures and sharing stories about our recent successes. Here are some of our favorites:
Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty’s founding supporter, Richard Viguerie, recently weighed in on Oklahoma’s ongoing death penalty quagmire. In an op-ed published by the Oklahoman, Viguerie wrote,
This election year, Republican and Democratic voters in records numbers agree on something: They distrust political leaders and the political establishment. That same distrust applies to ambitious prosecutors, who are part of the political establishment. Too many have been caught cheating to win convictions, withholding exculpatory evidence and using coerced confessions.
The bipartisan distrust of the political establishment is certainly increasing with regard to the death penalty.
Viguerie pointed out that when considering the death penalty’s numerous shortcomings, it is indefensible in practice:
The death penalty’s problems are a confluence of things that all Americans loathe: a big, broken, costly and dangerous government program prone to mistakes…
However, conservatives shouldn’t be surprised by the death penalty’s failures given the government’s track record as Viguerie noted:
The death penalty system, where errors are gravest, is prone to flaws and lawlessness like any other government program.
Last Thursday, death row exoneree Ray Krone and I spoke at Cleveland State Community College in Cleveland, Tennessee. During the event, Krone described his terrible ordeal in vivid detail to a captivated audience, and I described the systemic problems with the national death penalty. Several media outlets covered the event including the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Cleveland Daily Banner.
The Cleveland Daily Banner’s Allen Mincey wrote,
Spending over 10 years in prison, on death row, for a crime he was eventually exonerated for has led Ray Krone to question the death penalty, but mostly to question why he had to go through the process of being what he calls falsely accused of that crime.
Shelby Bradley from the Chattanooga Times Free Press said,
Krone, an Air Force veteran and U.S. Postal Service worker with no criminal record, hung out at that bar. Someone there told police that Ancona was romantically interested in Krone, and soon investigators knocked on his door, saying he was her boyfriend.
On April 13, I was a guest on Utah’s Public Radio (UPR) to discuss the conservative case against the death penalty and CCATDP’s upcoming appearance at the Utah Young Americans for Liberty Convention. UPR’s Evan Hall wrote,
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty was founded in order to give those on the Right space to advocate the end of capital punishment. Marc Hyden, the organization’s national advocacy coordinator, said that the death penalty egregiously violates conservative and libertarian principles.
“I believe that a policy, to be considered conservative, be at least pro-life, fiscally responsible, and representative of a limited government. The death penalty inherently risks innocent life. So, we know it’s not pro-life to risk innocent life. Then we find that the death penalty costs millions more dollars than life without parole,” Hyden said. “But in the end, you have to ask yourself, is this really representative of a limited government? Is there anything limited about giving an error-prone state the power to kill its citizens?”
An article that I recently authored was posted by the Oklahoma media outlet, NonDoc. In the piece, I described the many examples that have marred Oklahoma’s death penalty system. I said,
The signs of a turning tide are also starting to surface in Oklahoma. Recently, polling showed that a plurality of Oklahoma Republican voters were open to replacing the death penalty with an alternative, and, in light of recent events, that is an understandable sentiment. The national spotlight has focused on Oklahoma following embarrassing botched executions, a subsequent ongoing grand jury investigation, and repeated attempts to execute a man despite a lack of physical evidence — Richard Glossip.
Richard Glossip’s case is highly problematic and should specifically give everyone pause. I wrote,
Glossip gained national notoriety because he was the plaintiff in a highly anticipated US Supreme Court decision regarding execution methods, but he is also known for nearly being executed three times despite a dearth of physical evidence. In 1997, Barry Van Treese, the owner of the motel where Glossip worked, was brutally murdered.
Yesterday, the conservative media outlet, the Daily Caller, published an opinion piece of mine. In the op-ed, I outlined why Duane Buck, a man on Texas’ death row, deserves a new sentencing hearing. I wrote,
Buck’s own lawyers introduced an expert witness who testified that males and African Americans are both more likely to be a prospective threat. In Texas, juries must agree that defendants pose a future danger in order to impose a death sentence. The prosecution reiterated and relied upon the testimony during cross-examination and the closing argument to influence the jury to approve a death sentence. Considering that as a black male, Buck had two strikes against him, it comes as no surprise that the jury accepted the testimony, found him to be a future danger, and sentenced him to die.
Given that inappropriate testimony helped secure his death sentence, there are many reasons why conservatives should support a fair resentencing hearing.
Conservatives also believe in the rule of law, personal responsibility for actions, and that for every action there ought to be an appropriate and just reaction.
Reuters’ Jon Herskovitz recently covered the the conservative push to repeal the death penalty in numerous states, including Nebraska, Utah, and Missouri. He also highlighted Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty’s role in ending the death penalty. He wrote,
The push from the political advocacy group Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty and lawmakers in places such as Nebraska would have been unthinkable a few years ago when it would have been conservative heresy to end capital punishment, a program seen as bedrock issue of the law-and-order policies embraced by the party.
But those leading the campaign say the death penalty is a costly, inefficient and heavily bureaucratic program that runs counter to their core conservative values of limited government.
“This is not an issue just for bleeding heart liberals. This is an issue that pragmatic conservatives are getting on board with,” said Marc Hyden, a coordinator of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, a network of political and social conservatives who say capital punishment does not align with their values.
Last year, Utah approved a measure to reintroduce firing squads as an officially sanctioned method of executions, but this year, the Beehive State seemed poised to repeal the death penalty altogether. Sen. Urquhart, a conservative Republican, spearheaded the effort. His proposal sailed through the Senate and the House Judiciary Committee, but on the last day of legislative session, the bill simply ran out of time and never received a final floor vote. After nearly following Nebraska’ example, Utah legislators were asked about their apparent death penalty volte-face, and many explained that capital punishment in practice doesn’t align with conservative values.
Utah wasn’t the only conservative state flirting with repealing the death penalty. In Kentucky, Rep. Floyd, another conservative Republican, sponsored repeal legislation. The bill was given a vote in the Commonwealth’s House Judiciary Committee for the first time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. However, by a 9 to 8 margin, the bill narrowly missed being sent to the House floor.
Florida also made national news after their death penalty sentencing scheme was found to be unconstitutional by the U.S.
Earlier this month, CCATDP returned to CPAC for the fourth year in a row, and we enjoyed the same overwhelming acceptance that we always receive. Stephanie Slade from Reason Magazine covered our return. She wrote,
Groups like Right on Crime and Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP), once viewed mostly as novelties within the movement, are now fixtures of CPAC. What’s more, they’re making the case for rethinking the party line on criminal justice issues in decidedly conservative terms.
Slade interviewed me for her story and quoted me as saying,
“We’re accepted as just another part of the umbrella of conservatism. Nobody questions whether I’m a conservative or not—I’m talking about pro-life policies, fiscal responsibility, and limited government, and the death penalty just doesn’t work with that.”
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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