Last year I was interviewed by Kevin Davis from the ABA Journal, and this month it was published. Davis wrote,
Conservatives coming out against capital punishment are part of a broader movement among conservatives who are supporting criminal justice reform policies once largely the domain of liberal-minded politicians.
Davis also said,
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is led by Marc Hyden, a conservative Christian who used to work for the National Rifle Association. Hyden’s position has shifted radically from his younger days. “For a long time I supported the death penalty. I thought some people deserved to receive death for some of their crimes and I thought it deterred crime,” he says. “And I’m kind of ashamed to say that I accepted sometimes innocent people likely would be killed by the state.”
The McCollum case in North Carolina underscores that killing innocent people is a real possibility. “Stories like these—they bother you. You see how easily an innocent person can be executed by the state,” Hyden says.
CCATDP’s Ben Jones recently was interviewed by the LA Times, and he penned an article detailing why Christians should oppose executing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Robin Abcarian from the LA Times wrote,
On Friday, I spoke to Ben Jones, a 30-year-old marathoner who completed the Boston race before the bombs were detonated.
Jones, who lives in Lawrence, Kan., also happens to be a campaign strategist for Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, a group that is far more resolute in its stance against capital punishment than its name would suggest.
“I’m against the death penalty in all cases, including this one,” said Jones. “I grew up supporting it for religious reasons, but I started changing my mind when I heard about innocent people being exonerated.”
Ben Jones said,
“What he did was awful, horrific and caused immense pain,” said Jones, “but going for the death penalty and getting it will keep the process alive for years and years.”
There are many who oppose executing Tsarnaev and for good reason according to Ben Jones.
Following the big news out of Nebraska, CCATDP was featured in numerous news outlets, including the Atlantic, the Economist, and the Christian Science Monitor.
Russell Berman from the Atlantic said,
Nebraska on Wednesday became the first conservative state in more than four decades to repeal the death penalty. Its legislature, officially non-partisan but dominated by Republicans, voted by the narrowest of possible margins to override a veto by Governor Pete Ricketts, and enact a law scrapping a punishment that the state has struggled to carry out.
Berman also interviewed me for his story and wrote,
“It’s not just about the procurement of drugs,” said Marc Hyden of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, an organization that sprouted up in Montana several years ago and has since expanded nationally. “It’s not pro-life because it risks innocent life. It’s not fiscally responsible because it costs millions more dollars than life without parole.” Yet Nebraska’s bumbling and occasionally shady attempts to carry out death sentences—along with incidents in neighboring states like the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma—have given rise to another argument that sells among conservatives: the death penalty is just another example of government run amok.
Today, an article I wrote was published in the Bell Towers. It covered how and why Nebraska repealed the death penalty and what Nebraska’s example means at the national level. I said,
Before a bill can reach the governor’s desk in the Cornhusker State, the measure must be voted upon three times, and three times Nebraska legislators voted overwhelmingly to abolish capital punishment, even defeating a filibuster. As promised, Governor Ricketts vetoed the bill, prompting a showdown between the conservative legislature and the governor’s office. On Wednesday May 27th, 16 Republican senators joined their colleagues on the left to override the governor’s veto to once and for all eliminate the death penalty.
Conservatives across the nation have been increasingly opposing the death penalty because it violates many of our foundational principles, namely valuing life, fiscal responsibility, and limited government.
Nebraska represents proof of a shift in conservative movement, and I closed by writing,
Nebraska is proof that there is a new wave of conservatism, choosing traditional principles over petty politics.
Rachel Maddow from MSNBC recently highlighted Nebraska’s successful push to end the death penalty. She covered the how the effort was led by conservatives but passed with broad bipartisan support. You can watch the segment below.
Following the veto override vote, which made the repeal of the Nebraska’s death penalty official, there was a wave of media covering the event.
CCATDP supporter and award-winning vlogger, Julie Borowski wrote in the Libertarian Republic,
Nebraska isn’t exactly known for being a liberal progressive state. It’s one of the most conservative states in the country and the first red state to repeal the death penalty in 40 years. The vote was extremely close with both Republicans and Democrats coming together to nix the death penalty.
In an interview with NBC’s Tracy Connor and Elizabeth Chuck, EJUSA’s Shari Silberstein said,
“Americans have been moving away from executions for more than ten years, but now we have a red state turning that trend into law for the first time in 40 years,” said Shari Silberstein, executive director of Equal Justice USA.
“Nebraska has shown the nation what happens when you put aside partisan politics and embrace simple common sense. The death penalty was already on its last legs, but it’s hard to imagine that it has any staying power left after this.”
CCATDP’s Heather Beaudoin was a guest on the Alan Colmes Show to discuss,
…why conservatives should oppose the death penalty sentence given to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Friday for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Heather and Alan agreed that the death penalty should be eliminated as a punishment, and that life without parole is far worse. Heather also discussed that it is actually much more expensive to taxpayers to keep prisoners on Death Row due to the lengthy appeals process, and had facts about how many people on death row are actually innocent and could be wrongly put to death.
You can listen to the entire segment 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.
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