This week, CCATDP sent a letter to California Governor, Gavin Newsom, imploring him to take action as COVID-19 ravages San Quentin State Prison and other facilities. You can read the full letter below.   June 30, 2020 Dear Governor Newsom: With the rapid spread of COVID-19 inside San Quentin State Prison and across the state, we call for immediate action to save lives. The COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin was foreseeable and completely preventable. As Judge Tigar acknowledged on June 19, 2020, during a case management conference in Newsom v. Plata, the transfers from the California Institution for Men to San Quentin were a “failure in policy and planning.” Judge Tigar urged CDCR to act quickly to release people to house arrest, furlough, or to another newly created facility, not to include a currently operating prison. Since those comments on June 19, COVID-19 has spread even more rapidly inside San Quentin. As you acknowledged in your public statements on June 25, 2020, the people at San Quentin are some of the most vulnerable in the State. Many people inside are elderly, have pre-existing medical conditions, and cannot observe the same precautions people on the outside obser

Welcome to October! International Wrongful Convictions Day This Tuesday, October 2nd is the Fifth Annual International Wrongful Conviction Day. According to the organizers, this is a day set aside to raise awareness of the causes and remedies of wrongful convictions and to recognize the tremendous personal, social, and emotional costs of wrongful conviction for innocent people and their families. Help raise awareness for this day on your social media accounts with the hashtag #WrongfulConvictionDay and be sure to tag us @CCATDP! Here us a good resource to share along with posts. CCATDP National Manager Tapped as Newsmax Insider The leader of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is now a Newsmax Insider. Twice a month, Hannah Cox will be writing about the failures of the criminal justice system and especially the death penalty. Newsmax is a leading conservative news outlet that receives nearly 70,000 unique daily visitors. The company is ranked as the 3rd most trafficked political website. You can follow her blog Life and Liberty here and read her first article, “Do You Support the Death Penalty,” here. Execution Scheduled for October 11th in Tennessee In August, Tennesse

The leader of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is now a Newsmax Insider. Twice a month, Hannah Cox will be writing about the failures of the criminal justice system and especially the death penalty. Newsmax is a leading conservative news outlet that receives nearly 70,000 unique daily visitors. The company is ranked as the 3rd most trafficked political website. You can follow her blog Life and Liberty here and read her first article, “Do You Support the Death Penalty,” here.

Our National Manager, Hannah Cox, joined Connor Boyack, President of the Libertas Institute in Utah, and his cohost Bryan Hyde on their podcast Society and the State this week. On the episode, the three discussed the death penalty system in the US and the reasons each of them changed their stance from supporters to abolitionists. From the show’s website: “Concern over the death penalty isn’t just limited to bleeding hearts and liberals. It’s not a matter of coddling criminals. DNA evidence and other technological advances are proving that genuinely innocent people are sitting on Death Row or have been executed. Questions about the inefficiency, inequity and inaccuracy within the justice system mean that opposition to the death penalty is finding acceptance in conservative circles as well.” Check out the show and help us share it on social media! You can listen to the full episode here.

This week, New Hampshire came only two votes of shy of being able to override the Governor’s veto on death penalty repeal legislation. Despite this temporary setback, the state has shown real progress on the issue that is sure to continue next year, and that matches the momentum in the rest of the country for repeal. A new article from the Crime Report notes these gains and the work of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. From the article: “Thirty-one states still have death penalty laws still on the books, and 12 of those states have an official moratorium on executions. Earlier this year, CCADP told The Crime Report the group was hopeful about repeal efforts in New Hampshire, Washington State, and Utah. While none have yet succeeded, observers still note a trend favoring abolition.” It went on to note: “Even in red states not yet examining repeal, we have seen good momentum from leadership on this issue,” CCADP’s Hannah Cox told The Crime Report, noting Ohio Governor John Kasich’s recent grants of clemency to death row inmates William Montgomery and Raymond Tibbetts, and a death penalty study produced by Pennsylvania that calls for change. “All of th

A new article in the Washington Examiner examines the reasons a growing number of conservatives are opposed to the death penalty and links back to Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty multiple times. From the article: “Perhaps more fundamentally, however, another guiding star of conservatism is limited government and opposition to giving political leaders more power than they need. With the death penalty, which is clearly not needed to keep dangerous individuals off the streets in the modern world, granting the state authority over life and death is hardly justifiable.” The article went on to note: “In short, although the override of the governor’s veto in New Hampshire was unsuccessful, it should not be surprising that more conservatives now oppose the death penalty. Many of them came together to abolish Nebraska’s death penalty in 2015, although the voters later overturned them in a referendum. The field is moving on this issue, and hopefully others will join the fight to abolish the practice.” You can read the full article here.

In 2016 and 2017, Republicans introduced one-third of all death penalty repeal bills in state legislatures across the country. With a 60% decrease in death penalty sentences since 1999 and an execution rate down 45% since that same time, it’s been apparent that the death penalty is dying in the United States for quite some time. What hasn’t been so apparent, however, is the Right’s responsibility for this trend. Considering the nation’s death penalty system is plagued with issues of ineffective legal counsel, geographical bias, innocence, racial discrimination, and astronomical costs, it’s no wonder conservatives are deciding that this practice does not align with their values. Not only that, but there is ample proof that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent. In fact, regions of the country who do not utilize their death penalty as often, such as the Northeast, have very low homicide rates, while areas that use the death penalty the most, like the South, continue to see the highest rates of violent crime. When you consider the vast amounts of money being spent on the death penalty, at least $2 million per case above the costs of sentencing som