Article of Interest: Head of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty Calls Execution Increase a ​“False Indicator”

In an op-ed for The Black Chronicle, Demetrius Minor (pic­tured), exec­u­tive direc­tor of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, argues that an uptick in exe­cu­tions in 2025 ​“represent[s] the past more than the present as a rem­nant of our nation’s for­mer affin­i­ty for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” Mr. Minor’s opin­ion finds sup­port in DPI’s recent mid year review, which notes that new death sen­tences in July were low­er than they were at the same time in 2024. The bet­ter mea­sures of where soci­ety cur­rent­ly stands on the death penal­ty, Mr. Minor says, are ver­dicts from cap­i­tal juries. New death sen­tences are at near-record lows, includ­ing in conservative states. 

He attrib­ut­es this change to sev­er­al fac­tors: declin­ing pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty, the avail­abil­i­ty of alter­na­tive sen­tences like life with­out parole, pros­e­cu­tors pur­su­ing death less often, and a pub­lic that is bet­ter informed about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. ​“Innocence is a major issue for pro-life con­ser­v­a­tives like me, which may help to explain some of the shift away from juries issu­ing death sen­tences in some of the red­dest of states,” Mr. Minor writes. 

He con­cludes by warn­ing read­ers, ​“do not be fooled by head­lines about the lat­est exe­cu­tion some­where, the evi­dence is abun­dant­ly clear through the deci­sions of jurors nation­wide that the death penal­ty in America is los­ing legit­i­ma­cy, and that in the not too dis­tant future, it may end.”