Conservative Voices Continue to Call for End of Death Penalty

From October 2016 to October 2017, support for capital punishment among those identifying themselves as Republicans fell by ten percetage points. Two op-eds published towards the end of the year illustrate the growing conservative opposition to the death penalty. Writing in The Seattle Times on December 27, Republican State Senator Mark Miloscia (pictured, l.) called for bipartisan efforts to repeal Washington’s death-penalty statute. In a December 13 commentary in the Washington Times, conservative political strategist Richard Viguerie (pictured, r.) describes what he calls the “stunning” surge in Republican sponsorship of bills to end capital punishment. Setting forth moral and practical reasons for his support of Washington Senate Bill 5354, Miloscia writes that “[i]t is time to pass a strong, bipartisan repeal of the death penalty.” Miloscia cites his Catholic pro-life beliefs as the primary reason for his opposition to capital punishment and highlights Pope Francis’ calls for an end to the death penalty. He writes, “Given our modern prison system and ability to neutralize individuals as threats without killing them, it is never imperative to execute someone.” But beyond religious beliefs alone, Miloscia sees “many practical reasons why conservatives of all faiths are rethinking the death penalty.” Among them, he cites the high cost of capital punishment and the “ever-present risk of killing an innocent person,” which he says are “even more unjustifiable” given the absence of any valid evidence that executions affect murder rates. Further, he writes, “many murder victims’ families oppose capital punishment because it’s little more than a long, re-traumatizing process that doesn’t give them the justice that they deserve.” Miloscia sees a major shift underway in Republican thinking on the issue, paving a path for bipartisan repeal: “Republicans are turning against the death penalty, which means that opposition to capital punishment is no longer a partisan stance. As the death penalty slowly loses its supporting constituency, the punishment’s future becomes doubtful.” Conservative leader Richard Viguerie also sees a dramatic change in how conservatives view the death penalty. Viguerie cites a 2017 report by Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, which found a surge in Republican sponsorship of death-penalty abolition bills that Viguerie says “has been gaining momentum.” As part of this “massive shift,” he writes, one-third of all sponsors of death-penalty repeal bills in 2016 were Republicans. Viguerie writes, “conservatives are recognizing that capital punishment is a broken government program that runs counter to conservatism’s foundational tenets of valuing life, fiscal responsibility and limited government.” He, too, points to religion, and Catholicism in particular, as a reason for conservative opposition, but says that the Tea Party movement—with its support of limited government—and the election of younger legislators who are statistically more likely to oppose the death penalty, has contributed to the change. He foresees a continuing decline in conservative support for the death penalty: “As state legislatures undergo their makeovers, the public turns against the death penalty, and political leaders voice their capital punishment concerns, we should expect to see even more from Republican officials. Republicans will likely continue to sponsor repeal bills with increasing frequency and reverse the flawed criminal justice policies once advocated by their ideological predecessors of the 1980s and 1990s.”

(Mark Miloscia, Time for a bipartisan repeal of the death penalty, The Seattle Times, December 27, 2017; Richard Viguerie, Republicans reconsidering the death penalty, The Washington Times, December 13, 2017.) See New Voices.