Last Sunday, an article I penned was published in the Louisville Courier-Journal. In it, I presented the many reasons why conservatives are increasingly opposing the death penalty. I wrote,
The Northern Kentucky Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty hosted its inaugural event Oct. 14 where a group of Kentuckians with initially mixed emotions on capital punishment attended. However, as the attendees learned how the death penalty is administered, many were shocked by the repeated and egregious failures in its application.
Capital punishment’s reality really is offensive, especially to conservatives who value life, fiscal responsibility and limited government.
I closed by stating,
The death penalty is quite clearly broken beyond repair, but capital punishment’s alternatives are safer, cheaper and more effective. More conservatives are recognizing this point. Political and thought leaders including Jay Sekulow, Dr. Ron Paul, Colonel Oliver North and Michael Steele have joined the growing number of conservatives who believe that the death penalty is neither useful nor necessary, and many have determined that capital punishment is simply dangerous in the hands of our error-prone government.
Recently, CCATDP’s Heather Beaudoin penned an article describing what being pro-life means to her in Do Justice. She wrote,
“I am pro-life.” I hear those words frequently, but have come to realize that people who say them often mean different things. Sometimes they mean “I am adamantly against abortion, and will focus my energy on ending this practice.” Other times they mean “I want expectant mothers to be able to choose life, so I will focus my energy on providing them with the support they need in order to choose to parent or make an adoption plan for this unborn baby.” Still other times they mean “I am against the taking of human life – whether by abortion, euthanasia, or even capital punishment.” This last statement is where I stand, though I hold respect for individuals with differing views.
I believe that life is sacred from conception to natural death. Since every person is created in the image of God, life and death should be left up to Him.
Sputnik’s Thomas Zimmer recently interviewed me for an article describing Governor Ricketts’ attempts to reinstate Nebraska’s broken death penalty system. While it appears that enough signatures were gathered to place the death penalty on the 2016 ballot, there are still many hurdles ahead for Ricketts and company. Zimmer wrote,
The proposal to postpone the repeal of death penalty in Nebraska is irrational because the state’s capital punishment program is flawed with wrongful convictions and high costs, US advocacy group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty Advocacy Coordinator Marc Hyden told Sputnik.
“No matter how much money Governor Ricketts and his family spend on this referendum, it does not change the basic fact that they are trying to sell Nebraskans a lemon – a government program plagued by wrongful convictions, high costs, and long delays,” Hyden said.
Hyden added that “the broken nature” of the capital punishment in Nebraska has been “on full display with the ongoing fiasco surrounding the Governor’s attempts to illegally import lethal injection drugs from overseas.”The
Conservative news outlet Townhall reported on the National Association of Evangelicals’ (NAE) recently softened stance on the death penalty. Leah Barkoukis wrote,
The National Association of Evangelicals’ recent resolution on the death penalty didn’t exactly reverse the organization’s 40-year position favoring capital punishment, but it did make a significant change: It now recognizes the growing opposition to the death penalty among believers.
CCATDP’s Heather Beaudoin was on the front lines advocating for the NAE to change their longstanding pro-death penalty position. She said,
“Clearly we are seeing growing concerns among the NAE leadership about problems with the death penalty,” Heather Beaudoin, a national coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said in a statement. “These concerns mirror what I have been hearing when I talk to Christians across the country. More of them are questioning their support for the death penalty as they learn about its mistakes and bias. I am overjoyed that the NAE has taken so much leadership in fostering this dialog.”
While Evangelicals may hold different beliefs about capital punishment, the resolution states that all are “united in calling for reform to our criminal justice system.”
It’s official! Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty’s Heather Beaudoin has been working alongside many members of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) for some time, and on October 15, the organization stepped back from its pro-death penalty position of over 40 years. The NAE, with its new position, now recognizes many of the problems with the death penalty and why Christians are increasingly troubled by it.
Oklahoma, Montana, and Arkansas have indefinitely suspended executions. Oklahoma admitted that they executed Charles Warner in January using the wrong drug, potassium acetate, which is commonly used as a food preservative. Richard Glossip was next to be executed in Oklahoma despite his strong claims of innocence.
Arkansas was planning a string of 8 executions after a 10-year hiatus from executing anyone. However, the Arkansas State Supreme Court halted their attempts to resume because the state attempted to shroud its death penalty protocol in secrecy, which hid the source of the drugs from the taxpayers. This clear violation of transparency in government that conservatives demand was the last straw for the state’s supreme court as it issued an indefinite stay of all executions in Arkansas.
Recently, The Week’s Bonnie Kristian covered the burgeoning conservative movement against the death penalty. She questioned whether a pro-life philosophy can coexist with a pro-death penalty position. She wrote,
Of course, there are some conservatives for whom capital punishment is already a pressing issue. “For those of us who are pro-life and maintain the far-from-radical notion that our government shouldn’t kill innocent Americans, the death penalty fails to live up to our standards,” argues Marc Hyden of Conservatives Concerned About The Death Penalty (CCATDP), a nonprofit that exists to question “a system marked by inefficiency, inequity, and inaccuracy.”
She notes,
As CCATDP enumerates, the problems and perils of capital punishment in modern America are many. There’s the risk — as in the Glossip case and too many others, like Marlon Howell or Cameron Todd Willingham — of accidentally killing an innocent person. More than 150 people sentenced to die in America have been exonerated in the last four decades, some after spending 30 years or more on death row.
Yesterday, an op-ed that I wrote was published with Cincinnati’s WCPO Channel 9. In it, I highlighted the conservative case against the death penalty in advance of my speaking engagement in Covington, Kentucky on October 14. I wrote,
Earlier this year, the nation watched as Nebraska, one of the most conservative states in America, voted overwhelmingly to repeal the death penalty. Similar movements have been stirring in other states as well. Ohio State Rep. Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg), Kentucky State Rep. David Floyd (R-Bardstown), and many other conservatives have sponsored legislation to end capital punishment and replace it with life in prison without parole. As conservatives increasingly learn how the death penalty is inconsistent with our values, capital punishment’s days are numbered.
The death penalty simply doesn’t live up to theoretical standards, and it isn’t pro-life, fiscally responsible, or representative of a limited government. I closed by stating,
As we are confronted with the government’s numerous egregious errors, we need to ask ourselves, do we really trust our error-prone government to administer the death penalty equitably, efficiently, and without mistakes?
A court recently ruled that Montana’s lethal injection combination failed to live up to legislative and judicial standards, which effectively placed Montana in a de factor moratorium. Sputnik’s Thomas Zimmer interviewed EJUSA’s Sarah Craft and myself for an article covering the development. Zimmer wrote,
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The moratorium placed in the US state of Montana on administering the death penalty reveals the dangers that are posed by lethal injection drugs to death row inmates, advocacy group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty Advocacy Coordinator Marc Hyden told Sputnik on Wednesday.
“The risks are far too high especially considering the extensive ineptitude that is prevalent in the process,” Hyden stated.
I additionally said,
“This also calls into question whether taxpayers should trust the government with the flawed capital punishment system when states are unable to even concoct approved death penalty drug combinations,” he pointed out.
“The court’s ruling, telling the State [of Montana] that it must abide by its own laws, illuminates just one more piece of evidence that the death penalty is on its way out,” Craft said.
COMING TO MERCER COLLEGE
CONSERVATIVES CONCERNED ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY
Mercer College Republicans will address the issue tonight
October 6, 2015 – Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP), a national network of conservatives and libertarians questioning the alignment of capital punishment with their principles, will be featured at tonight’s monthly meeting of the Mercer University College Republicans chapter in Macon (details below).
“The death penalty stands in direct contrast to conservative values,” said Austin Paul of the Mercer College Republicans. “It costs too much, it ends life, and it gives the state an enormous amount of power. If we truly believe in limited government, we have to recognize that the death penalty, no matter how appealing it may be, does not represent those ideals,” Paul said.
CCATDP national coordinator Marc Hyden, a former legislative aide to the Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore, will be making a presentation to the group about why conservatives in Georgia and across the nation are re-thinking the death penalty.
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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