After spending 31 years on death row, Henry Lee McCollum recently became the 146th person to be sentenced to death and later released because he was wrongly convicted. This comes at a time when North Carolina is attempting to resume executions after an 8-year hiatus.
The North Carolina Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty has been very active in educating North Carolinians on the death penalty’s failures. Conservatives in Kansas are making waves too. The Kansas GOP dropped its support for the death penalty from its official platform while the Kansas Republican Liberty Caucus took a position against the death penalty.
The Liberty Coalition, an organization that works to help organize, support, and coordinate transpartisan public policy activities related to civil liberties and basic human rights, formed a partnership with Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty.
Liberty Coalition’s co-founder, Michael Ostrolenk said, “The United States government has perverted the relationship between the citizen and the State. We now have warrantless surveillance, militarized police and indefinite detention. How can a government that so easily disregards the fundamental principles that created it (and limited it) be trusted with questions of life and death? It can’t, and that is why I support Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty.”
The national death penalty dialogue has been evolving with capital punishment’s failures coming to light, as we travel the United States speaking on the subject, and with each media appearance.
Conservatives Concerned in the Media
CCATDP has had been featured in numerous media outlets laying out the conservative case against the death penalty and highlighting new events.
Here is a sampling of our media coverage:
I was interviewed on News Talk 1620 in Pensacola, Talk Radio 1260 in Fort Walton Beach, the Lou in the Morning Radio Show in Pensacola, and Asheville’s WLOS Channel 13. I also returned as a guest on the Scott Horton Radio Show. National Advocacy Coordinator, Heather Beaudoin, appeared on the Capitol Hill Show with Tim Constantine and Q with a View.
I wrote an op-ed in the Pensacola News Journal describing the state of the death penalty in Florida. Heather Beaudoin penned a letter to the editor in the New York Times illustrating the broken bureaucratic death penalty system.
CCATDP was also featured in the Christianity Examiner, Rare, Shared Justice, the News & Observer, and many more.
Conservative Conversations
Continuing our short series of videos featuring conservatives describing their opinions on the death penalty. This month, Clare McCallan discusses the principle of life and the death penalty, and Steve Monks explains why he is opposed to capital punishment.
Conservatives Concerned in the Field
CCATP returned to LPAC in Alexandria, Virginia. We once again immediately found an abundance of supporters who see the death penalty as an illegitimate government power prone to abuse and mistakes.
I also toured the Florida Panhandle and spoke with conservative groups from Panama City to Pensacola. I was well received at the University of West Florida College Republicans, the Bay Patriots, and the Florida Panhandle Patriots. Each event was attended by many principled conservative activists who viewed the death penalty as a program in conflict with our conservative principles.
Upcoming
CCATDP will be exhibiting at the 22nd annual State Policy Network conference in Denver, Colorado. Come out, learn more about conservatism, and show your support for CCATDP.