In the 1990s, the Gallup Poll measured support for the death penalty in the United States at 80%. Since then it has fallen into the mid 50%s. The death penalty has long been opposed by human rights and civil rights activists, who question whether capital punishment can be applied fairly and whether the risks of executing innocent people are too great, and by those who consider it morally wrong for the government to take the life of a prisoner who has already been incapacitated by incarceration. But a growing number of non-traditional voices have raised new concerns about the death penalty, questioning its cost, its ineffectiveness in protecting the public and police, the disservice it does to family members of murder victims, its inconsistency with a pro-life ethic and the values of limited government, and whether the money spent on the death penalty could be used more effectively. These new voices represent a variety of perspectives, from judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement veterans to legislators, academics, spiritual leaders, and murder victims’ families.
For more information about new voices in the death penalty discussion, see news features about:
- Conservatives
- Victims
- Law Enforcement
- Judges
- Academics
- Editorials
- Medical Professionals
- Miscellaneous
- Political Leaders
- Prosecutors and Attorneys
- Religious
- Supreme Court Justices
News & Developments
News
Aug 19, 2024
Kansas City Star Op-Ed Describes the Death Penalty as the “Ultimate Failed Big-Government Program” and Calls for Abolition
In an August 14, 2024 op-ed in The Kansas City Star, Carolyn McGinn, a Kansas State Senate Republican representing District 31, and Kelson Bohnet, a capital public defender and board member for the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, argue that the state’s capital punishment system has failed, emphasizing its costliness, lack of deterrent effect, and inherent risk of “irreparable harm,” and call for abolition during the next legislative…
Read MoreNews
Jun 25, 2024
Articles of Interest: A Look at the Difficulties Faced by Fathers on North Carolina’s Death Row
A June 18, 2024 article published in the Assembly examines the complicated relationships fathers on North Carolina’s death row have with their children, as they grapple daily with the uncertainty of their sentence. The author, Waverly McIver, highlights the hardship these families endure through the experiences of two death-sentenced prisoners, Jason Hurst and Terry…
Read More
News
May 24, 2024
Article of Interest: Retired Supervising Detective Says There Was No Crime in Robert Roberson’s Case
In a May 23, 2024 op-ed published in The Dallas Morning News, Brian Wharton, the retired supervising detective in Robert Roberson’s case, urged Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell to reexamine the case and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reexamine a pending motion on Mr. Roberson’s innocence claims, which have previously been denied. “It would be a terrible legacy for all of us to be associated with executing an innocent man based on a rush to judgment and…
Read More
News
May 02, 2024
Articles of Interest: Missouri and Oklahoma Corrections Officials Describe Psychological Toll of Performing Executions
An April 28, 2024 report by Ed Pilkington in The Guardian chronicles the trauma experiences by prison officials assigned to carry out executions. Oklahoma correctional officers asked Attorney General Gentner Drummond to slow the pace of executions, citing “lasting trauma,” Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and alcohol abuse among staff due to frequent executions in the state. Former corrections director Justin Jones told Mr. Pilkington, “It affects your mental state when it becomes so routine,”…
Read More
News
Mar 26, 2024
Citing a Lack of Evidence, Editors of the Scientific American Call for Abolition of the Death Penalty in New Op-Ed
“It is long past time to abolish the death penalty in the U.S.,” write the editors for the Scientific American. In a March 19, 2024 op-ed titled “Evidence Does Not Support the Use of the Death Penalty,” the authors cite an abundance of studies demonstrating that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, but is a flawed, racially biased, and costly practice responsible for sentencing innocent lives to…
Read More