One year after the Nebraska legislature voted to repeal the death penalty and overrode a gubernatorial veto of that measure, actions in legislatures across the country suggest that the state’s efforts signalled a growing movement against the death penalty by conservative legislators and that support for the death penalty among Republican legislators is no longer a given. Reporting in The Washington Post, Amber Phillips writes that Republican legislators in ten states sponsored or co-sponsored legislation to repeal capital punishment during the current legislative sessions. She reports that although these repeal bills have not become law, they have made unprecedented progress in several states. In Utah, a repeal bill sponsored by Sen. Stephen Urquhart (pictured)—a former death penalty proponent who supported the state’s firing squad law—came closest, winning approval in the state Senate and in a House committee. Missouri’s bill saw floor debate in the Senate, and Kentucky’s received a committee hearing for the first time in 40 years. An effort to return death penalty support to the platform of the Kansas Republican Party failed by a vote of 90-75, and the Kansas College Republicans passed a resolution calling for the abolition of the death penalty, highlighting a generational divide on the issue. Dalton Glasscock, former president of Kansas College Republicans, said, “My generation is looking for consistency on issues. I believe if we say we’re pro-life, we need to be truly pro-life, from conception to death.” The National Association of Evangelicals also changed their stance on the issue, acknowledging “a growing number of evangelicals,” who now call for abolition. Though a majority of Republicans still support the death penalty, Phillips writes that “it’s notable that a year after we wondered whether Nebraska was an anomaly or the start of a trend, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that conservative opposition to the death penalty may indeed be a trend — a small but growing one.”
