Last week, I traveled to Williamsburg, Virginia, where I spoke at an event hosted by the College Libertarians and College NAACP. I presented the conservative case against the death penalty and discussed at length why Virginia is far better off without capital punishment on its books.
The event was covered by Heather Baier of the Flat Hat News. She wrote,
The College Libertarians and the College of William and Mary’s chapter of the NAACP hosted the second lecture in their three-part series, “Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty,” Wednesday, March 22.
National Advocacy Coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty Marc Hyden spoke about the legal and financial pitfalls surrounding the death penalty.
“It risks innocent life, costs a ton of money and it gives an error prone government an awful lot of power,” Hyden said.
Baier reported,
“The way the death penalty is run should offend those of us who are dedicated to protecting potentially innocent life,” Hyden said. “As well as those of us fiscal conservatives like me who want to see fiscal prudency, fiscal sanity in government. The truth of the matter is, the death penalty is far more expensive than life without parole.”
She continued,
The United States has released 155 incarcerated people who had been sentenced to death since the 1970s. These individuals spent an average of 10 years in prison.
Hyden said he believes he death penalty puts a government on the same level as its criminals.
“When the government kills an innocent U.S. citizen, it becomes no better than the offenders that it’s trying to execute,” Hyden said.