A Florida prosecutor, Ashley K. Albright, who is currently seeking the death penalty for a man named Michael Woodbury has asked for input from the local community on his sentence.
Woodbury, who is accused of killing a fellow inmate at the Okeechobee Correctional Institute, has pled guilty and claims he was acting in self-defense.
At Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, we know the death penalty wastes millions of dollars a year. Based on the 44 executions carried out by Florida since 1976, the cost per execution is about $24 million. That’s money that could be better allocated for programs that actually deter violence.
But not only does this system waste money for an outcome that will seldom be reached, it also runs the risk of a wrongful conviction. Thus far, over 162 people have been exonerated from death row when evidence of their innocence finally came to light.
Help us tell Mr. Albright that the death penalty is an ineffective system, and that Floridians would rather see their money spent on programs that actually produce safer communities.
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP) has appointed Hannah Cox as the organization’s new National Manager. Her arrival comes as the network of conservatives who have concerns about the death penalty continues to grow.
“We are excited by the skills, experience, and record of success that Hannah brings with her,” said Shari Silberstein, Executive Director of Equal Justice USA, CCATDP’s parent organization. “Her arrival will allow us to carry on this project’s momentum.”
Cox comes to CCATDP from the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a free-market think tank, where she has been the Director of Outreach in charge of the center’s grassroots efforts. She also has extensive public policy experience, first as the Director of Development for the Tennessee Firearms Association and then as a policy advocate for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Additionally, she also spent two years coordinating a mental health coalition in Tennessee, TASMIE, that sought an exemption from the death penalty for those with severe mental illnesses.
“I am honored to be selected for this position at such a critical time when conservative opposition is leading to a dramatic decline in support for the death penalty nationwide,” Cox said.
Reaction from Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty
After more than six and a half years, the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment has released a report on its study of the death penalty. The report makes several significant recommendations, recognizing commonly known problems with the death penalty. It addresses many areas of concern to growing numbers of conservatives, including its high cost, unfairness, and discriminatory nature.
“No one can ignore the myriad of problems with the death penalty,” said Heather Beaudoin, national coordinator of CCATDP. “This report, like many before it in Pennsylvania and around the country, recognizes many of those problems. It’s no wonder why conservatives who believe in fiscal responsibility, fairness, and the value of life are abandoning the death penalty in growing numbers.”
“Anything less than a full implementation of the report’s recommendations represents a willingness to carry out executions regardless the system’s significant flaws and the high possibility of error,” Beaudoin said.
The bipartisan task force, set up by Pennsylvania’s Joint State Government Commission, calls for a death penalty exemption for those with severe mental illness, the establishment of a state capital defenders office, further study on racial bias in the application of the death penalty, a more relaxed schedule for state level appeals, among other recommendations.
Statement from Heather Beaudoin, National Coordinator Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP)
“Despite widespread opposition from Granite Staters, victim’s family members, and law enforcement, Governor Sununu vetoed SB593 to repeal the death penalty. We are extremely disappointed by the governor’s shortsighted decision. The death penalty goes against conservative principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and valuing life. Instead, New Hampshire will continue to waste precious taxpayer resources on a broken system that ignores the needs of those most impacted by violence.”
Richard Lorenc, a founding member of Conservative Concerned About the Death Penalty’s group on Georgia, recently published an op-ed about the case of Charles Rhines. Rhines faces execution in South Dakota, and his attorneys argue that he ended up on death row because of bias among jury members against homosexuals.
Just as the judiciary has a responsibility to address when racial prejudices poison jury deliberations, it must also act when challenged with the prospect of anti-gay bias in a capital murder trial.
Read the full article on ACSBlog, a publication of the American Constitution Society.
Lorenc is the Executive Vice President of the Foundation for Economic Education. He chairs the boards of directors of America’s Future Foundation and the Coalition to Reduce Spending.
By nearly a 2-1 margin, the Republican-controlled New Hampshire legislature has voted to repeal the death penalty. Now the bill goes to Governor Chris Sununu, who has threatened to veto it.
It is more important than ever to let the Governor know that the death penalty does not align with our conservative values and New Hampshire doesn’t need it. Sign the petition to Governor Sununu asking him to sign the bill and end the death penalty.
Governor Sununu says he believes that, in vetoing the bill, he is standing with all law enforcement and murder victim family members. It’s our job to tell him that this is not the case. The death penalty is a failed policy, proving costly, ineffective, harmful, and unnecessary. The State is spending millions of dollars on a death penalty that does nothing to make people safer.
Governor Sununu needs to know that we, as conservatives, are watching.
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is seeking a new manager. The right person could help to end the death penalty from anywhere in the country. Could it be you?
The Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) isn’t just any conference. It’s the largest and most prominent gathering of conservative activists in the country.
It’s also the birthplace of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.
The Florida legislature is now in session, and a bill to end the use of the death penalty needs your help! Equal Justice USA has set up an easy action to contact Florida legislators and ask them to co-sponsor this important bill.
If you are from Florida, please join in this call to say YES to ending the death penalty.
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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