This morning, I was a guest on News Radio 1620 AM in Pensacola, FL with Andrew McKay to talk about the death penalty and upcoming speaking engagements in Florida’s Panhandle. If you missed the live broadcast, then you can hear the full segment here.
I recently wrote an op-ed for the Pensacola News Journal pointing out the many shortcomings of Florida’s death penalty system. Today, capital punishment is dysfunctional in every state that still has it on the books, but Florida is perhaps the worst of all at administering the program. I said,
Florida is a leader in many ways, but its death penalty system is one of the worst in the nation. It is horribly inefficient, wrongly convicts more people than any other state, fails to keep Floridians safe, and harms murder victims’ family members. It’s time to discuss whether we, as conservatives, can justify the human and fiscal cost of the death penalty especially when it violates our central principles.
I returned as a guest to the Scott Horton Show yesterday to update his listeners on our many successes and the growing conservative discontent with the death penalty. You can hear the entire interview here.
On July 23rd, Americans were witness to yet another botched execution. This one happened in Arizona after the state purchased untested drugs from a secret source. These new events have led many conservatives to reexamine their position on the death penalty.
Conservatives Concerned in the Media
CCATDP has been featured in many different media outlets in the past month. Here’s a sampling:
We were guests on several radio shows including the Capitol Hill Show with Tim Constantine, John McIntire Show, the BK Factor, Coalition Radio Rhode Island, CounterPoint Radio, and we returned to the Gary Nolan Radio Show for the 4th time.
CCATDP was featured in various print media including the New York Times, Townhall, NBC News, Rare, Washington Times, BBC World, and the Daily Caller.
We were also featured in a BBC World documentary and on the Daily Ledger TV Show.
Conservatives Concerned in the Field
Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty returned to the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) national convention, which features prominent political leaders.
Hanna Kozlowska of the New York Times described the politically Right side of the case against the death penalty that is rising up out of the spate of botched executions. She cites conservatives and libertarians who are working to educate people on the death penalty’s failures. She said,
A modest but growing group of conservatives would agree with Mr. Gillespie. Conservative policies are supposed to be “pro-life, fiscally responsible and limited government,” Marc Hyden, of the advocacy group Conservatives Concerned About Death Penalty, told USA Today. “We risk taking innocent life, it costs more than life without parole, and I can’t think of a bigger government program than one where you can kill your citizens.”
Townhall magazine hosted a written debate on the death penalty. While both sides offered points in support and against the capital punishment. They had this to say about CCATDP,
Groups like Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty have been created as networks for conservatives across the country to debate and question the continued use of capital punishment. Richard Viguerie, one of organization’s founding members is quoted as saying: “this trend is not limited to bleeding-heart liberals and crime coddlers.”
And these groups are not some obscure collection of Republicans in name only. The websites for both the CCATDP and the Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty list quotes from active members of the conservative community, such as: Bill O’Reilly, George Will, Kenneth Starr, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who have all questioned their support for capital punishment.
Listen to Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty’s Marc Hyden on Coalition Talk Radio out of Rhode Island. The segment on the death penalty begins at the 5:15 mark. Hear the interview here.
Drew Johnson, CCATDP supporter and Washington Times columnist wrote a piece articulating the conservative case against the death penalty after the bungled execution of Joseph Wood in Arizona. Johnson said,
“The death penalty is an affront to all we hold dear as conservatives and libertarians. It is a disastrous policy that fails at its goal of preventing crimes, it wastes taxpayers’ hard-earned money, it has almost certainly been responsible for killing innocent Americans and it empowers government with the authority to kill its own citizens.”
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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