NEW VOICES: Conservatives Speak About the Death Penalty

A grow­ing num­ber of con­ser­v­a­tives have stat­ed their oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. Among them is National Review colum­nist and American Enterprise Institute fel­low Ramesh Ponnuru, who cit­ed his Catholic faith as a rea­son for the change in his stance. He said he had to over­come his ini­tial emo­tion­al response to heinous crimes because, ​“Our emo­tion­al or intu­itive reac­tions are not a sure guide to right and wrong in mat­ters of moral import.” He added that the death penal­ty’s declin­ing promi­nence as a hot-but­ton issue might give con­ser­v­a­tives more room to recon­sid­er the posi­tion: ​“Once an issue drops in polit­i­cal salience,” he said, ​“qui­eter reflec­tion can take place and peo­ple can change their minds.” Ponnuru’s views are sim­i­lar to those expressed ear­li­er by promi­nent con­ser­v­a­tive leader Richard Viguerie, who said he has opposed the death penal­ty for 35 years because of his faith.

A new orga­ni­za­tion, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, is high­light­ing voic­es like Viguerie’s and Ponnuru’s and ask­ing whether the death penal­ty is con­sis­tent with con­ser­v­a­tive val­ues. Among those cit­ed are Ron Paul, Bill O’Reilly, Pat Robertson, George Will, for­mer Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, John McLaughlin, and right-wing legal activist Larry Klayman.

Marc Hyden, an orga­niz­er of the group, said, ​“This is a pro­gram that con­ser­v­a­tives should be uncom­fort­able with. The ques­tion is not whether peo­ple who com­mit heinous crimes deserve to be exe­cut­ed, it’s whether we trust the gov­ern­ment to effi­cient­ly and effec­tive­ly car­ry that out.”