Recently, the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Jim Galloway wrote a column about Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty and the conservative case against today’s system of capital punishment. Galloway said,
The liberal argument is that executions are a type of cruel and unusual punishment forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. Hyden and his group tread more practical ground.
The death penalty isn’t fiscally responsible. “Everybody knows it’s more expensive than life without parole,” he argued. Single death penalty cases have driven some communities close to bankruptcy.
The process of litigation, which averages 15 years per case, is a torture to the families of the victims. “It promises them a death sentence,” Hyden said. “That promise, because of what happens in appeals, and what happens with the juries – it’s not always kept.”
The death penalty doesn’t work as a deterrent. Texas executes more people than any other state, Hyden points out. But the state’s murder rate hasn’t declined as a result.
But Hyden kept coming back to the fact that we keep finding people on death rows across the country who don’t belong there. “It’s not pro-life, because of the risk of killing innocent people,” Hyden said.