Yesterday evening, the conservative publication, Rare, published an article I authored. In the piece, I described how the state of the death penalty is in decline despite the ballot outcomes. In fact, there are many metrics that depict a death penalty whose end is inevitable. I wrote,
Measures to end the death penalty were on ballots in Nebraska and California this year, but unfortunately, the push to repeal capital punishment in those states fell short. While death penalty supporters may celebrate the results as some sort of national capital punishment rebound, they will likely end up very disappointed. The referendum results represent the kind of ebb and flow normally seen in political movements, but a number of national key indicators, such as death sentences, executions and polling, show that the death penalty in decline. Moreover, capital punishment supporters still face a challenge they have yet to figure out: designing a death penalty system that actually works.
I continued,
While the results of the death penalty related ballot measures were disappointing, the pro-capital punishment camp shouldn’t start celebrating because the death penalty’s future doesn’t look promising. Fewer people are supporting it, and as a program, it has become unworkable, which government officials are increasingly recognizing. At some point, they will realize that they are throwing money at a failed system that a growing number of their constituents no longer support. Some states have already reached this conclusion and ended the death penalty, and inevitably more will too.