Ending the Death Penalty through
Education, Organizing & Advocacy
New group of conservatives forms to highlight the flaws in America’s death penalty
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a national network of conservatives questioning the alignment of capital punishment with conservative principles, will debut at CPAC (March 14-16).
Local conservative leaders from Montana, Kentucky, Texas, and Kansas will be in attendance. National figures Jay Sekulow and Richard A. Viguerie are also supporters of the group.
“Conservatives should question how the death penalty actually works in order to stay true to small government, reduction in wasteful spending, and respect for human life,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.
Roy Brown, former Montana House Majority Leader and a republican candidate for Montana governor in 2008, helped found Montana Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty several years ago. Brown was enthusiastic about expanding his grassroots effort, and will attend CPAC as part of the new national effort.
“We came together to shatter the myth that conservatives blindly support the death penalty,” said Brown. “Many of us have thought a lot about this issue, and we wanted a forum to speak to each other and to speak collectively about the need to re-examine capital punishment from a conservative perspective.”
Brown continued, “It might be easier to allow the death penalty to continue if it were less expensive than life in prison; if the courts treated rich and poor equally; if it truly was a deterrent and if everyone that was executed was guilty. But the death penalty is none of those things.”
Richard A. Viguerie, known as the “Funding Father” of the conservative movement, also supports the new group. “Conservatives have every reason to believe the death penalty system is no different from any (other government programs) which we conservatives know are rife with injustice,” Viguerie said.
Across our nation the number of death sentences is dropping and polls are showing support for capital punishment at an all time low. According to Richard Viguerie, “This trend is not limited to bleeding-heart liberals and crime coddlers.”
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty will be at booth 712 in the CPAC exhibit hall. For more information contact Jon Crane at 203-982-4575 or email [email protected].
About Us
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is a nationwide group of conservatives questioning whether capital punishment is consistent with conservative principles and values due to the system’s inefficiency, inequity, and inaccuracy. Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is a project of Equal Justice USA, a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization working to build a criminal justice system that works. For everyone. To learn more go to http://www.conservativesconcerned.org
Posted: Saturday, March 9, 2013 12:00 am
Virginia’s death-row population has dwindled to eight from a peak of 57 in 1995, and it’s not just because of the state’s efficiency in carrying out capital punishment.
A couple of death sentences have been erased recently — one because of the inmate’s mental health issues, another because a star witness changed his story and prosecutors withheld key evidence. Another inmate’s innocence claim based on recanted testimony was revived last year by an appellate court and is in a judge’s hands.
But another reason for the declining population is that fewer death sentences are being handed down.
Patrick Semansky/Associated Press – Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley speaks at a rally in support of repealing the state’s death penalty in Annapolis on Jan. 15.
The 27 to 20 vote was widely seen as a key step in ending capital punishment in Maryland, which has not executed a death-row prisoner since 2005. The legislation now goes before the House of Delegates, where a vote could come as early as next week.
The House is expected to approve the measure, handing Gov. Martin O’Malley a long-sought legislative victory at a time when he is weighing a run for national office in 2016.