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.
