Rare’s Rebekah Johansen recently covered Richard Glossip’s troubling case in Oklahoma. According to Johansen,
The strange and twisted tale of Richard Glossip is a rundown of some of the worst fears of death penalty opponents. In 1997, Glossip, a motel manager, was arrested for the killing of the motel’s owner, which would go on to be prosecuted as a “murder-for-hire.” Never charged with actually carrying out the killing, Glossip was instead targeted as the mastermind, a charge he has consistently denied.
Marc Hyden of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty points to the case as one exemplifying why his fellow conservatives ought to give capital punishment a second look.
“The Glossip case bears many of the hallmarks of the wrongful convictions that plague the death penalty system,” Hyden told Rare, “inept defense attorneys, zero physical evidence, and the reliance on the testimony of a single person.”
Even though Connecticut repealed the death penalty in 2012, 11 men still remained on the state’s death row, awaiting possible execution. The state’s repeal only applied to future cases, but the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled last week that the last remnants of the state’s capital punishment system were unconstitutional. Citing the program’s utter failures, the court removed all men from death row, ending Connecticut’s death penalty for good.
Conservatives Concerned in the media
CCATDP was back in the media this month, shattering the myth that all conservatives support the death penalty, and we were featured in a broad range of publications:
• I was interviewed by the New York Times to provide an update on Nebraska’s capital punishment debate and by the Catholic News Network to discuss conservative support for criminal justice reform. Additionally, I spoke with the American Prospect, which published an article highlighting the conservative case against the death penalty.
• I also explained how conservatism and capital punishment are inconsistent with each other on the “David Pakman Show,” and I returned as a guest to Joe Cristiano’s “Liberty Talk Radio” to discuss Oklahoma’s insistence on executing Richard Glossip, despite his strong claims of innocence.
Elizabeth Eisenstadt-Evans, reporter for Lancaster Online, drafted an article about Texas District Attorney Tim Cole. He tried three capital cases in his tenure, but he now believes that the death penalty is no longer acceptable. He said,
“Personally I don’t believe keeping the death penalty is worth the execution of an innocent person. We can correct incarceration. We can’t bring someone back to life.”
CCATDP’s Heather Beaudoin was also included in this piece to describe the how the national is moving away from capital punishment as well. She stated,
“As a nation we are moving away from the death penalty,” says Heather Beaudoin one of the national coordinators for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a project of the criminal justice reform group Equal Justice.
Beaudoin, who comes from a conservative religious background, works particularly closely with evangelicals.
“The more we know about the death penalty, the more public opinion has shifted away from it,” she says. “It’s just not worth it anymore.”
CCATDP’s Heather Beaudoin was recently interviewed by RYOT regarding Richard Glossip’s capital case. Earlier this year, he was the plaintiff in case that challenged lethal injection protocol and reached the US Supreme Court. It was however, rejected by 5 of the 9 justices, but concerns surrounding his conviction are leading more and more Americans to call for his reprieve until the doubts regarding his verdict are settled. RYOT author, Eric Pfieffer wrote,
Glossip was convicted in the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese. However, Glossip himself was never accused of committing the act of killing. Rather, that dishonor went to Justin Sneed, who is currently serving a life sentence. That alone seems almost incomprehensible: That the man who actually and unquestionably committed murder is serving a lesser sentence than someone convicted of being an accomplice to the crime but whose guilt is still in question.
Pfieffer continued,
His first trial was actually overturned when it was decided that his legal representation was incompetent. And the second trial, which resulted in Glossip’s conviction, was based almost entirely on word of mouth testimony due to the lack of physical evidence.
Katherine Riley from the American Prospect recently covered the burgeoning conservative opposition to the death penalty and why red states are taking another look at this broken program. She wrote,
There are few things that embody big government more than capital punishment—and a small but growing conservative movement wants it repealed.
She also interviewed me for this article. She said,
The mere concept of the state putting someone to death is antithetical to the principle of limited government. “There’s no greater power than the power to take a life, and our government currently retains that authority,” says Hyden, “If you don’t trust a government to deliver a piece of mail or launch a healthcare website, why would you trust them to take a life?”
Matt Maly, coordinator for the Nebraska Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, was also interviewed for this story. Riley wrote,
“Conservatives don’t like big government,” says Maly, “They don’t like ineffective, expensive programs. And that’s exactly what the death penalty is.”
Riley concluded that the death penalty’s days are numbered, as she said,
In the end, it’s a testament to the activists in these deep red states that the tide is beginning to turn.
The American Catholic covered President Obama’s “historic” visitation of a prison and the President’s commutation of 46 prison sentences. They also examined harsh sentences in the United States including the death penalty. I was interviewed for this piece to discuss capital punishment and why it is not only unnecessary but also dangerous.
American Catholic writer, Mark Pattison wrote,
No one could agree more than Marc Hyden, founder of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, albeit for different reasons than might be argued by the bishops.
“The conservative case against the death penalty is incredibly simple,” Hyden said. “The death penalty risks innocent lives, it costs more than prison. I don’t think there’s anything pro-life about giving the state the power to kill its citizens. What do you get out of this program? You get the quintessential big, broken government program.”
Hyden cautions against questioning his conservative bona fides, as he used to work for the National Rifle Association. He said he’s welcomed at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Tea Party and Republican Party events.
The New York Times’ Julie Bosman covered the attempt to reinstate the death penalty in Nebraska via a petition drive. She wrote,
If proponents of the death penalty collect about 58,000 signatures, or 5 percent of Nebraska’s registered voters, by the end of August, under state law they will force a statewide referendum on the death penalty in November 2016. If the organizers collect twice that number, the new law repealing capital punishment will be blocked until the referendum.
But this is an effort spearheaded by a Governor who witnessed the legislature override his veto and overwhelming vote three other times to repeal a broken death penalty system. Bosman noted,
The governor has received criticism from lawmakers for his role in resurrecting the issue of the death penalty after the Legislature debated it extensively, voted three times to abolish it and overrode a veto. Governor Ricketts donated $100,000 to the petition effort, as did his father, Joe Ricketts.
State Senator Colby Coash, who led the repeal campaign within the legislature said,
“It makes me worry,” Mr.
Nebraska repealed the death penalty by overturning the governor’s veto on a 30-19 vote, but the debate isn’t over. Governor Ricketts has vowed to execute the remaining death row inmates, despite the legislature’s action to end capital punishment. He even made efforts to acquire lethal injection drugs in order to carry out these executions, but the FDA has stated that it will seize these drugs because they were illegally imported from India.
All these developments point to a hopelessly broken system of capital punishment, which is why the Nebraska Legislature ended it in the first place. Nevertheless, Governor Ricketts and his allies are attempting to reinstate the death penalty by putting the issue on the ballot. To force a referendum on capital punishment, they must collect over 50,000 signatures and over 100,000 to halt the law until a statewide vote is held.
In response, Nebraskans for Public Safety officially launched, bringing together many coalition partners who supported repeal efforts. Nebraskans for Public Safety is continuing to educate Nebraskans about the failures of the death penalty and encouraging citizens to “Decline to Sign” the petition that would put death penalty repeal on the ballot.
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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