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.”
There are many reasons why such a conservative state repealed the death penalty. The Daily Caller’s Casey Harper called Nebraska the first domino and expanded on why conservatives are moving away from capital punishment.
“I think that the main reason that evangelicals are paying attention is because we believe in redemption,” Beaudoin told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “God has the ability to transform their lives and use them for good.”
Marc Hyden, National Advocacy Coordinator for CCATDP, travels the country trying to convince Republicans that true conservatism is about being pro-life, fiscally responsible, and having limited government, things the death penalty completely contradicts. Recent surveys have found that it is actually cheaper to imprison people for life than to execute them.
“I’m just trying to raise up new voices that are against the death penalty and let others know that traditional conservatism is completely inconsistent with the death penalty,” Hyden told TheDCNF. “If you boil it down to its lowest common denominator and ask any conservative if they support a program that doesn’t achieve its goals, may kill innocent people, and costs millions more dollars than the alternatives, nine out of 10 will say we need to repeal a program that dangerous and that broken.”
According to Amanda Sakuma from MSNBC,
Nebraska state Sen. Colby Coash said there was a push from conservatives in the legislature to change the narrative around the death penalty as a cost-benefit analysis.
“We’re lying to our constituency when we say that it’s an effective tool when it’s one that hasn’t been used in 20 years,” Coash said. “It’s been expensive, hasn’t been used, it won’t be used and doesn’t need to be in the statute.”
Pema Levy from Mother Jones, who has covered CCATDP in the past, wrote that this represent a breakthrough for conservatives. She wrote,
For conservative opponents of the death penalty, Wednesday’s vote represents a breakthrough. A month ago, overcoming the governor’s veto still looked like a long-shot. Conservatives make a number of arguments against the death penalty, including the high costs and a religion-inspired argument about taking life. “I may be old-fashioned, but I believe God should be the only one who decides when it is time to call a person home,” Nebraska state Sen. Tommy Garrett, a conservative Republican who opposes the death penalty, said last month.
“I think this will become more common,” Marc Hyden, national coordinator of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said in a statement following the repeal vote. “Conservatives have sponsored repeal bills in Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Missouri, and Kentucky in recent years.”
The Foundation for Economic Education’s Daniel Bier covered CCATDP, Nebraska’s repeal effort, and discussed why we are better off without the death penalty. He said,
The judicial system isn’t perfect. What are the odds that all of the 3,000 prisoners on death rows around the country are guilty? Do they all definitely deserve to die? We know better.
Other states should follow Nebraska’s lead and abolish the expensive, ineffective, and inefficient policy that puts life and death in government’s hands.