Newsweek published an article penned by Pema Levy this morning, which covered the conservative momentum against the death penalty. She highlighted the actions and acceptance of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, and Levy covered CCATDP’s presentation at the Georgia GOP’s 7th District event, ‘Conservatism Outside the Box.’ She said,
Armed with a PowerPoint slideshow, he began with the pictures of men on death row who were executed before potentially exculpatory evidence was uncovered. Next, he hammered on the high costs of the death penalty, largely due to the costlier trials and prolonged appeal process in most cases, which sometimes force counties to commit the cardinal conservative sin of raising taxes. The state of California, for example, has, since 1978, spent $4 billion on death penalty cases and carried out 13 executions.
“This should be offensive to conservatives,” Hyden told the crowd. “We’re supposed to act as stewards of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”
He bolstered his speech with quotes from prominent conservatives such as former U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas and columnist George Will, whose concerns about the death penalty might come as a surprise to some conservatives.
“Halfway through I could see there was a change in people,” Hyden says. “Once I was finished, I kept having people walk up to me telling me that in the morning they walked into the convention center supporting the death penalty, and now they’re leaving either opposed to the death penalty or not quite sure where they stand on it anymore.”