Last Thursday, the Georgia Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty launched at a press conference at the Georgia Capitol. Speakers included,
- State Representative Brett Harrell (R-Snellville)
- David Burge – Former 5th Congressional District GOP Chairman
- Richard Lorenc – COO of the Foundation for Economic Education
- Jennifer Maffessanti – Chairwoman of the Atlanta chapter of America’s Future Foundation
- Charles Jones – Republican activist and former President of the Athens, GA, Right to Life
- Austin Paul – past Co-Chair of the Mercer University College Republicans
- Marc Hyden – Georgia resident and National Advocacy Coordinator of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty
If you missed the press conference, you can watch it in its entirety here.
The press conference has been taking Georgia by storm as there has been a steady stream of media covering the event.
Georgia Pol, a well-traveled political blog, published an advanced story about it, stating,
But a group focused on using conservative principles to advocate for death penalty reform is looking to raise awareness about the flaws in the system. Georgia Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty will hold a press conference this Thursday at the state Capitol.
Jessica Szilagy of All on Georgia also covered it, which was syndicated here, here, here, here, and here. She wrote,
In an era where technology and forensics are exonerating prisoners around the nation on a near-weekly basis, more and more activist are joining together to reconsider how death penalty practices can be reformed.
Most recently, that group of activists, with the help of state representative, fell into the “conservative” category.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on it here and here. AJC’s Jim Dennery wrote,
State Rep. Brett Harrell, R-Snellville, has doubts about the government’s ability to perform many tasks and says a “healthy skepticism of our state’s death penalty is warranted.”
“Many individuals have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to die,” Harrell said in a statement leading up to a meeting last week of a group called Georgia Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. “Meanwhile, taxpayers are forced to pay for this risky government program, even though it costs far more than life without parole.”
The Gwinnett Daily Post’s Curt Yeomans also published an article on the event. He wrote,
Marc Hyden, also spoke a the group’s launch. Hyden … is Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty’s national advocacy coordinator. He explained that the group is made up of conservatives who “feel the death penalty is inconsistent with our core values.”
“The death penalty in its simplest form inherently and repeatedly risks innocent lives,” Hyden said.
Harrell cited studies about the cost of keeping someone on death row, sometimes for decades, versus the cost of keeping someone in jail for life without the possibility of parole, saying the latter option was the more affordable one.
“As someone who is skeptical of large government, I like to make sure that the government is as efficient and as small as possible,” he said. “And we’ve seen repeatedly since the re-institution of the death penalty in the ’70s that people have been tried, convicted and sentenced to death row, and I believe 156 now have been exonerated, including six from Georgia.
Macon, Georgia’s Fox 24/ABC 16 reported on it too, and they interviewed Austin Paul to discuss why he got involved and why he is concerned about the death penalty.
Following the press event, I was a guest on GPB’s On Second Thought to discuss the growing conservative opposition to the death penalty in Georgia. You can listen to the segment here.
The press conference also generated mentions from the LA Times, GA Pundit, and the Georgia News Network.