Yesterday, Katherine Dwyer, our past Koch Communications Intern, had another article published. In the piece, she described why Idaho’s death penalty statute is in dire need of reform, given that the state allows those suffering from severe mental illnesses to be executed.
Dwyer opened by stating,
Across the country, more and more conservative coalitions are pushing for legislation exempting the mentally ill from the death penalty. To date, Idaho doesn’t have such a law on the books, but we should. Roughly one in three inmates in Idaho prisons are in need of mental health care. With only four mental health facilities statewide, those who suffer from mental illness are limited in their access to treatment, and worse yet, our state allows these people to be sentenced to die, despite their debilitating mental disorders, including schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and delusional disorder. These mental illnesses inhibit an individual’s ability to exercise rational judgment, or recognize the nature, consequences or wrongfulness of their behavior.
She also pointed out that executing those who are severely mentally ill doesn’t deter crime, holds those who aren’t thinking rationally culpable, and wastes valuable resources that could be spent elsewhere to prevent these crimes.
CCATDP’s past Charles Koch Institute Communications Intern, Katherine Dwyer, recently wrote an op-ed laying out the myriad of reasons why the severely mentally ill shouldn’t be executed and why Idaho should pass legislation protecting them from executions.
Dwyer wrote,
To date, Idaho doesn’t have such a law on the books, but we should. Roughly one in three inmates in Idaho prisons are in need of mental health care. With only four mental health facilities statewide, those who suffer from mental illness are limited in their access to treatment, and worse yet, our state allows these people to be sentenced to die, despite their debilitating mental disorders, including schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and delusional disorder. These mental illnesses inhibit an individual’s ability to exercise rational judgment, or recognize the nature, consequences or wrongfulness of their behavior.
Many who suffer from mental illness in Idaho only access care once they’re in a crisis because there is a severe lack of psychologists and treatment facilities for the mentally ill.
On April 11, we released a letter that has received national attention. It was signed by 25 notable Virginia conservatives calling on Virginia Governor McAuliffe to halt the planned execution of Ivan Teleguz. His execution is scheduled for April 25, despite a complete lack of physical evidence and the fact that two of the three witnesses who originally linked him to the crime have since recanted their testimony. The third witness had incentive to lie because he received a lighter sentence in exchange for testifying against Teleguz.
Considering all of this, there is simply too much doubt to execute Teleguz, and there is reason to believe that he may actually be an innocent man. Thus, pro-life conservatives in Virginia signed the letter respectfully asking Gov. McAuliffe to commute Teleguz’s sentence. You can read it in its entirety and see the signatories here.
Conservatives Concerned in the Field
On March 22, I traveled to the College of William and Mary, where I presented the conservative case against the death penalty at an event hosted by the College Libertarians and College NAACP.
Following the Arkansas debacle, in which the state had originally planned to execute 8 people in 10 days, the Washington Post published a story on conservatives’ positions on the death penalty and how the Arkansas episode is altering their views.
Post writer, Amber Phillips wrote,
The Supreme Court said Monday that Arkansas won’t be able to execute two of its death-row inmates. And a growing number of conservatives, who see the death penalty as an anachronistic, religiously hypocritical and big-government waste of money, are just fine with that.
She also interviewed Georgia State Representative Brett Harrell (R-Snellville), who previously spoke at the Georgia Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty’s launch, for the story:
“For me, both as a fiscal conservative as well as a person of faith, we’ve evolved to a point in society where it’s not necessary,” said longtime Georgia state Rep. Brett Harrell (R), who just unveiled his opposition to the death penalty.
In January, Harrell helped announced the formation of Georgia’s branch of Conservatives Against the Death Penalty, a faction of a national group formed in 2013 that has now expanded to 11 states and counting, including in very red states such as Utah, Kansas and Nebraska.
Reason Magazine has been reporting on Arkansas’s ongoing attempt to execute 8 people in 10 days, and in Reason writer, Ed Krayewski’s latest story, he wrote,
The Arkansas State Supreme Court has stayed tonight’s planned executions, which would have been the first of up to eight executions set to take place before the end of the month, when the state’s supply of midazolam expires.
Krayewski also interviewed me for the story and reported,
Marc Hyden, the national advocacy coordinator for Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, an anti-death penalty group, also stressed the risk Arkansas’ planned execution spree posed to corrections officers. “The speed of executions they want to carry out in Arkansas using an unstable drug will increase the risk of botched executions,” Hyden told Reason, “putting corrections officers through an incredible amount of stress and trauma.”
“These people have probably never executed anyone,” Hyden noted, “and now you’re asking for two executions a day.”
Hyden also said Arkansas’ frenetic pace worked to further weaken support for the death penalty, saying he received a text message from one Tea Party leader who said she found what Arkansas was doing “disgusting” despite supporting the death penalty.
At noon today, a letter signed by 25 notable conservatives and libertarians was delivered to Virginia Governor McAuliffe asking him to halt Ivan Teleguz’s upcoming execution. As of this moment, Virginia officials plan to execute him on April 25, but conservatives are understandably concerned about Teleguz’s case. By any reasonable standard, there simply is far too much doubt to execute him, which is why many conservatives are asking Governor McAuliffe to intervene.
You can read the letter to Governor McAuliffe below:
Questioning a system marked by inefficiency, inequity, and inaccuracy.
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is a network of political and social conservatives who question the alignment of capital punishment with conservative principles and values.
We are a project of Equal Justice USA, a national organization working to end the death penalty in the United States.
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