Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty Celebrates Juneteenth and Highlights the Continued Fight for Equality and Justice

Juneteenth is a cel­e­bra­tion and remem­brance of the end of slav­ery in the United States fol­low­ing the Union’s vic­to­ry in the Civil War. In June 2021, President Joseph Biden signed leg­is­la­tion estab­lish­ing Juneteenth as a fed­er­al hol­i­day, for­mal­ly com­mem­o­rat­ing the end of slav­ery. According to President Biden, ​“Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slav­ery and sub­ju­ga­tion, and the promise of a greater morn­ing to come.” Among the many groups com­mem­o­rat­ing Juneteenth was Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a net­work of polit­i­cal and social con­ser­v­a­tives who ques­tion the align­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment with con­ser­v­a­tive prin­ci­ples and values.

In a video issued to hon­or Juneteenth, Demetrius Minor, CCATDP National Manager, notes that sen­tenc­ing dis­par­i­ties and lack of effec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion still per­vade the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem and dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly impact peo­ple of col­or. Echoing the words and sen­ti­ment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Minor urges a ​“peace­ful resis­tance with a uni­fied voice, a voice that calls for the end of prac­tices that per­pet­u­ate inequal­i­ty and vio­lence and pain, prac­tices with no basis in jus­tice and prac­tices that don’t keep us safe.”

Mr. Minor also describes the impor­tance of remem­ber­ing the events of ​‘Bloody Sunday’ in Selma, Alabama when 58 indi­vid­u­als peace­ful­ly march­ing for jus­tice and equal­i­ty were met by vio­lence from more than 150 mem­bers of law enforce­ment in 1965. Mr. Minor dis­cuss­es that ​“now, two gen­er­a­tions lat­er, just like those who crossed this bridge, we still have so much to fight for to see lib­er­ty and jus­tice for all.”