Wyoming

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, Wyoming has only carried out one execution, in 1992. Even so, taxpayers continue to pay for the error prone, costly, and broken death penalty system. A number of Wyoming Republicans and conservatives, in response to this broken system, have joined efforts to repeal the death penalty. During the 2019 legislative session in Wyoming, the legislature captured the nation’s attention as a bill fell only a handful of votes shy of repealing the death penalty. While this may have come as a surprise to outsiders, it didn’t to anyone familiar with the Cowboy State and the deep commitment to fiscal responsibility and limited government.

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What Wyoming Conservatives are Saying

I oppose the death penalty because I believe in limited government over life and liberty matters concerning our citizens, fiscal responsibility in how we spend our justice dollars, and because executing our own citizens is immoral and a violation of God's natural law. If we’re taking a person’s life because we believe that it was unjust for that person to take another’s life, then that seems paradoxical. We ought to be consistent with our morals and our principles. Life is either precious or it’s not.

Republican State Representative Jared Olsen,

Wyoming has not carried out an execution in 27 years and does not have a single inmate on death row, yet we continue to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to maintain the death penalty. I believe the availability of a life without parole sentence adequately balances the need to protect public safety while recognizing the need to reduce the strain on taxpayer resources.

Republican State Senator Brian Boner,