GEORGETOWN LIBERTY GROUP TO HOLD DEATH PENALTY FORUM
STUDENTS TO LEARN WHY CONSERVATIVES OPPOSE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
March 3, 2014 – Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty has been invited to present at a special forum by the Georgetown University Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter. The event will take place on Wednesday March 5th from 8:00-9:00pm in Georgetown University’s White-Gravenor Building auditorium (Room 311).
The founder of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, former Montana House Majority Leader Roy Brown, will be joined on stage by the group’s national coordinator Marc Hyden.
“Conservative Libertarians are increasingly reevaluating capital punishment,” said Marc Hyden, national coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. “They want to learn why we think the death penalty is wasteful, unfair, error-prone, and out-of-step with conservative values.”
The national Young Americans for Liberty organization formed a strategy partnership with Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty in 2013.
“We are pleased to host this event and we love the work that Conservatives Concerned is doing,” said Michelle Tu, the event coordinator for YAL.
Today, the Bell Towers published a piece I wrote. In an time when the GOP establishment and the Tea Party are feuding and, sometimes, splitting the political right, the desire to reform the broken criminal justice system and repeal the death penalty has the potential to unite many conservatives and create unlikely alliances. I said,
Conservatives are increasingly becoming bridge builders by supporting criminal justice reforms that would have been improbable a generation ago. From over-criminalization and the war on drugs to prison over-crowding and juvenile justice, conservatives are now rethinking long held positions that have led to a wasteful, massive prison build up across the country. Not surprisingly, we are doing it by applying traditional conservative principles such as individual liberty, fiscal responsibility, and respect for innocent life.
and went on to say,
Perhaps more than anything else, conservatives share a deep and abiding mistrust of government. Conservatives have always believed that justice must be blind and that the law must be applied fairly. This is where the conservative re-examination of the criminal justice system and capital punishment connects us across constituencies.
Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty supporter, Kentucky Representative David Floyd, recently wrote an op-ed for the Courier-Journal to share why he opposes the death penalty. He also describes the many different failures of capital punishment that run contrary to conservative thinking.
Capital punishment in Kentucky is a broken government program that risks killing the wrongly convicted, risks abuse of power, wastes resources, is arbitrary and unjust. We’ve tried to make the death penalty work, but we have been unable to fix its many problems and reconcile it with our conservative principles. We should repeal the death penalty and replace it with life without parole. It’s the only way to ensure that no innocent people are killed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and that those impacted by the process get finality much sooner.
Representative David Floyd recently held a press conference to announce his sponsorship of the death penalty repeal bill. You can watch his remarks below.
CONSERVATIVES BRING DEATH PENALTY CONCERNS BACK TO CPAC
GROUP CATAPULTED TO NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT IN ITS FIRST YEAR
February 28, 2014 – Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty will return to CPAC (March 6-8, National Harbor, MD) as national support for the death penalty reaches a 40-year low. Republican lawmakers across the country have been taking the lead in calling for an end to capital punishment, with GOP legislators sponsoring and co-sponsoring such bills in Kentucky, South Dakota, and New Hampshire.
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty debuted at CPAC one year ago. In its first year it has gained a score of endorsements, including one from former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul. The group has formed a strategic partnership with Young Americans for Liberty and is assisting local conservative groups that are forming in states such as North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska.
“The outpouring of support we’ve received from the conservative movement has shattered the myth about conservatives support for the death penalty,” said Marc Hyden, national coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP) heads to CPAC in a few weeks with a full head of steam. We’re coming off a number of successful presentations at conservative conferences and events, and conservative media are embracing our message in ever greater numbers.
Conservatives Concerned in the media
Last week, The Daily Caller, with over 10 million unique views a month, published my op-ed, Conservatives are rethinking the death penalty.
There have been more than three dozen news reports about CCATDP since the first of the year. Here are a few of our favorites:
The Daily Caller, a conservative media outlet with over 10 million unique views a month, published an op-ed of mine last night titled Conservatives are rethinking the death penalty. I explain how the national death penalty dialogue is changing and why many conservatives are opposing the death penalty. I said,
This [conservative] momentum shouldn’t surprise anyone because the death penalty is ridden with failures that run contrary to conservative thinking. Conservatives believe in limiting the power of the state and protecting innocent lives. Reconciling capital punishment with these basic conservative principles is difficult; over 140 individuals have been exonerated after being sentenced to death.
I went on to say,
Conservatives also believe in putting a stop to runaway government spending, and the dramatically increased cost of the death penalty, versus life-without-parole, is antithetical to fiscal prudence.
Kirk Bloodsworth, death row exoneree and Advocacy Director for Witness to Innocence, penned an op-ed in the Commercial Appeal, a Memphis, Tennessee news outlet. Bloodsworth illustrates capital punishment’s many problems by citing examples of wrongful convictions, but he also points to the growing conservative opposition to the death penalty in Tennessee and nationally due to the many partnerships and work Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty is performing. Bloodsworth stated,
Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is working to repeal the state’s death penalty by educating Tennesseans about these problems and organizing citizens to act. And more voices are joining the chorus for repeal. Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (conservativesconcerned.org) is working to organize conservatives nationally and in Tennessee who are voicing their concerns; among its supporters in Tennessee is Drew Johnson, a senior fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance and founder of the Beacon Center, who believes that a government program like the death penalty runs a high probability of killing innocent people.
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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