Entries tagged with “Conservatives”
New Voices
,Feb 24, 2025
Article of Interest: Cato Institute Fellow Critiques Medical Ethics Double Standard Around Executions
In a February blog post, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Jeffrey A. Singer criticizes the use of medicalized lethal injection, highlighting the double standard under which procedures that medical professionals are ethically barred from carrying out are not only allowed, but required, of law enforcement personnel. “A doctor who intentionally performs cruel and medically unjustifiable procedures that cause pain and suffering could face criminal charges. If the patient dies, the doctor could face…
Research
New Voices
,Jun 02, 2023
Conservative Commentator Warns of Dangers of Non-Unanimous Death Sentences
Florida’s recent decision to allow death sentences without a unanimous jury recommendation increases the risk of executing an innocent person, according to conservative commentator Christian Schneider (pictured). In a May 25, 2023 column for The National Review, Schneider argues that conservatives should oppose the law that allows a death sentence to be imposed when only eight jurors agree. “For every case in which guilt is a foregone conclusion, there are many others in which the facts are…
Research
New Voices
,May 12, 2022
‘Every Option Will Be on the Table’: Republican Leader of Texas House Justice Reform Caucus Says He Would Support Moratorium on Executions
Saying that recent events in Texas’ attempt to execute death-row prisoner Melissa Lucio had shaken his faith in the criminal legal system, an influential Republican state legislator has said that he would now support a moratorium on executions in the state. In an April 29, 2022 interview on WFAA-TV’s Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely, Representative Jeff Leach (pictured), co-chair of the Texas House of Representatives’ bi-partisan Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, said “every option [for…
Issues
Apr 14, 2022
Kentucky Becomes Second State to Bar Imposing Death Penalty on Those Diagnosed as Seriously Mentally Ill
Kentucky has become the second state in the U.S. to bar imposing the death penalty on those diagnosed as seriously mentally ill. On April 8, 2022, Governor Andy Beshear (pictured) signed HB 269 into law, as Kentucky joined neighboring Ohio in exempting severely mentally ill defendants from capital punishment. The enactment of the new law by a Republican-dominated legislature and a Democratic governor reflected broad bipartisan support for limiting the scope of Kentucky’s death penalty statute.
Research
Feb 17, 2022
Effort to Repeal and Replace Utah’s Death Penalty Fails on 6 – 5 Vote in State House Committee
A high-profile Republican-led effort to abolish the death penalty in Utah has failed in committee by a single vote. State representatives in the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 6 – 5 on February 14, 2022 not to advance a proposal that would repeal Utah’s death penalty and replace it with a new non-capital sentencing alternative of 45 years to life. The bill, HB 147, was introduced in the deeply conservative state by Republican lawmakers Representative V. Lowry Snow and…
Research
Jan 19, 2022
Republican Legislators Introduce Bill to Repeal and Replace Utah’s Death Penalty
Two conservative Republican legislators, both former supporters of capital punishment, have introduced legislation that would end death-penalty prosecutions in Utah. On January 18, 2022, the first day of the three-month 2022 legislative session in the deeply conservative state, State Representative V. Lowry Snow (pictured, left) and Senator Daniel McCay (pictured, right) introduced HB 147, which would prohibit the death penalty for aggravated murders committed after May 4, 2022 and for all…
Issues
Jan 11, 2022
Disability Rights Groups, Legal Experts, and Conservative Advocates Urge Supreme Court to Strike Down Georgia’s Uniquely Harsh Proof Requirements in Death-Penalty Intellectual Disability Cases
A coalition of disability rights groups, legal experts, and conservative advocates are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the uniquely harsh burden of proof Georgia has imposed upon defendants seeking to establish their ineligibility for the death penalty because of intellectual disability. In four friend-of-the-court briefs filed in late December 2021, two former U.S. solicitors general, eight former prosecutors and judges, seven leading disability rights organizations, scholars…
Issues
Jan 05, 2022
Former U.S. Solicitor General: Supreme Court Must ‘Uphold the Rule of Law’ that Texas Courts Ignored in Death Penalty Case
A former conservative federal judge and U.S. Solicitor General has called on the United States Supreme Court to vacate a ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) that allowed a Texas death sentence to stand in the face of an earlier Supreme Court ruling that defense counsel had unreasonably failed to present a “tidal wave” of “compelling mitigating evidence.” Kenneth W. Starr (pictured), who was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by…
Research
New Voices
,Dec 30, 2021
Utah County Attorney’s Rejection of Death Penalty Reflects Broader Conservative Movement Away from Capital Punishment
When Utah County Attorney David Leavitt (pictured) announced on September 8, 2021 that his office would no longer pursue the death penalty, his decision to do so was emblematic of a broader shift in conservative thinking on the death penalty. The Republican district attorney from “a deeply conservative” county that gave Donald Trump a 41-percentage-point margin of victory in the 2020 presidential election joined what the Wall Street Journal describes as “a growing movement of conservatives…
Research
New Voices
,Dec 02, 2021
New Podcast: Republican State Representative Jean Schmidt on Her Efforts to Abolish the Death Penalty in Ohio
In the December 2021 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Death Penalty Information Center Deputy Director Ngozi Ndulue interviews State Representative Jean Schmidt (pictured) about her work as a primary sponsor of a bill in the Ohio House of Representatives that would abolish capital punishment in the state. A long-time Republican elected official, Rep. Schmidt also served in the U.S. House of Representatives for ten years. She avidly supported the death penalty early in her career but now is an…
Issues
New Voices
,Sep 30, 2020
NEW VOICES: Oklahoma Legislator Says Get the Death Penalty Right or Don’t Do It
A self-described tough-on-crime Oklahoma state representative says has serious doubts as to the reliability of the Sooner State’s death penalty. “As taxpayers and voters,” Republican State Representative Kevin McDugle (pictured) writes in a September 5, 2020 commentary in the Tulsa World, “we are all participating in this decision to kill — each of us has a finger on the needle that injects the poison. … These are life-and-death decisions that must be made with life-and-death accuracy.”
Issues
New Voices
,Apr 29, 2020
Conservative Commentator: Facing Coronavirus Budget Shortfalls, States Should Cut the Death Penalty
Conservative commentator Drew Johnson (pictured) has a suggestion for states whose budgets have been gutted by declining tax revenue and rising costs related to the coronavirus pandemic: end the death penalty. In an April 23, 2020 op-ed for conservative news outlet Townhall, Johnson writes, “As state policymakers put programs on the chopping block in an attempt to balance budgets, there’s one failed policy that should be first to go: the death penalty.” Johnson, a Senior Scholar at the…
Research
Mar 05, 2020
Bipartisan Coalition in Ohio Announces Planned Introduction of Death-Penalty Repeal Legislation
A bipartisan coalition of Ohio lawmakers has announced plans to introduce legislation to end capital punishment in the Buckeye State. At a press conference at the state capitol in Columbus on March 4, 2020, State Senator Nickie J. Antonio (D – Lakewood, pictured, left) said that she and Senator Peggy Lehner (R – Kettering, pictured, right) would be jointly sponsoring a bill to abolish the death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life without possibility of parole. The announcement comes as…
Research
New Voices
,Mar 04, 2020
New Discussions With DPIC Podcast: Hannah Cox on Conservative Opposition to the Death Penalty
In the March 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Hannah Cox (pictured), National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP) speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about the continuing movement by social and political conservatives away from capital punishment, how the death penalty is out of step with core conservative values, and the key role that conservative legislators are playing in abolition efforts across the U.S.
Research
New Voices
,Oct 29, 2019
More Than 250 Conservative Leaders Join Call to End Death Penalty
More than 250 conservative leaders from across the country have signed on to a statement expressing their opposition to capital punishment as administered across the United States and issued a “call [to] our fellow conservatives to reexamine the death penalty and demonstrate the leadership needed to end this failed policy.” Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP) released the statement in conjunction with an October 28, 2019 nationally webcast press conference that highlighted…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Military
,Oct 11, 2019
100th Execution or 30th Exoneration? Florida Sets Execution Date for 73-Year-Old Military Veteran Who May Be Innocent
Florida has scheduled the execution of 73-year-old James Dailey (pictured) for November 7, 2019, despite substantial evidence that he had no involvement in the killing, including a statement by the admitted killer, Daley’s co-defendant, that he had acted alone. Dailey stands to be either the 100 death-row prisoner put to death by Florida since executions resumed in the 1970s or the state’s 30th death-row exoneree. Dailey was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of 14-year-old…
Research
New Voices
,Executions Overview
,May 20, 2019
Alabama Governor Calls Life “Precious” and “Sacred,” Then Denies Clemency to Michael Samra
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has drawn criticism for denying clemency and presiding over the execution of Michael Samra (pictured) on May 16, 2019, one day after issuing a statement calling Alabama a pro-life state and declaring life “precious” and “sacred.” On May 15, Ivey signed into law a bill that criminalizes abortion, saying that the new law “stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God.” After…
Research
New Voices
,Jan 23, 2019
Bill to Abolish Wyoming’s Death Penalty Introduced with Bipartisan Support
A bipartisan coalition of Wyoming legislators has introduced a bill to abolish the state’s death penalty. On January 15, 2019, Cheyenne Republican State Representative Jared Olsen (pictured, left) and Republican State Senator Brian Boner (pictured, right), introduced HB145, which would repeal the death penalty and replace it with a judicially imposed sentence of life without parole or life imprisonment. The bill, co-sponsored by sixteen other representatives and senators, has the backing of…
Research
New Voices
,Dec 27, 2018
National Think Tank Calls on Conservatives to Reject Death Penalty
The R Street Institute, a Washington-based policy think tank, has joined the growing number of conservative voices advocating for death-penalty abolition. In a commentary in the November/December 2018 issue of The American Conservative, the institute’s criminal justice and civil liberties policy director Arthur Rizer (pictured, left) and its Southeast region director Marc Hyden (pictured, right) argue that “the closer conservatism remains to its core values, the more credibility it brings to…
Issues
New Voices
,Aug 15, 2018
Fox Commentator: Oklahoma “Frontier Justice” Has Produced “Wretched Record” of Wrongful Capital Convictions
Calling Oklahoma “the notorious home of ‘Hang ’Em High’ executions,” conservative commentator and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin (pictured) has urged the state to adopt sytemic reforms to address its “wretched record on wrongful convictions.” Malkin says that despite 35 exonerations in the last 25 years — including 7 death-row exonerations — and a “reign of prosecutorial terror and forensic error by the late Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy and rogue Oklahoma City police department…
Issues
New Voices
,Jul 30, 2018
New Conservative Voices Criticize Death Penalty as an ‘Inept, Biased and Corrupt’ Big Government Policy
Calling the death penalty a wasteful “big government” policy that is “inept, biased, and corrupt,” a libertarian think tank and a New Orleans columnist have joined the chorus of conservative voices calling for the end of the death penalty. In Conservative doesn’t mean supporting death penalty, New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist Tim Morris (pictured) argues that being a conservative requires neither “an unyielding fealty to a party or person [or] simply finding the polar opposite of some…
Issues
New Voices
,Jul 10, 2018
Kentucky Legislature Conducts Hearing on the Commonwealth’s Death Penalty
A joint committee of the Kentucky legislature conducted a hearing on July 6, 2018 on the Commonwealth’s rarely used death penalty, including a presentation by supporters and opponents of a bill to abolish capital punishment. The General Assembly’s Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary took testimony from prosecutors, defense attorneys, correctional officials, and legislators on issues ranging from costs and arbitrariness to the length of the appeal process. Though Kentucky currently has 31…
Issues
Victims' Families
,New Voices
,Jan 16, 2018
Bipartisan Effort to Abolish Death Penalty Gains Momentum in Washington
With the backing of the state’s governor and attorney general, Democratic and Republican sponsors of a bill to repeal Washington’s capital-punishment statute have expressed optimism that the state may abolish the death penalty in 2018. In 2017, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, was joined by former Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, in calling on the legislature to end the state’s death penalty. Ferguson, who has said “[t]here is no role for capital punishment in a fair…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Religion
,New Voices
,Jan 08, 2018
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…
Issues
New Voices
,Oct 27, 2017
New Report Documents “Dramatic Rise” in Republican Support for Death-Penalty Repeal
“The death penalty is dying in the United States, and Republicans are contributing to its demise,” concludes a new report, The Right Way, released on October 25 by the advocacy group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. The report traces “the dramatic rise in Republican sponsorship of bills to end the death penalty” and the trends that it says helped contribute to this rise. Based on this data, the report says “[m]ore Republican lawmakers are recognizing that the death penalty is a…
Issues
New Voices
,Aug 03, 2017
Political Analysis: Is Conservative Support the Future of Death-Penalty Abolition?
In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, released online in July, Ben Jones argues that, despite the popular conception of death-penalty abolition as a politically progressive cause, its future success may well depend upon building support among Republicans and political conservatives. In The Republican Party, Conservatives, and the Future of Capital Punishment, Jones — the Assistant Director of Rock Ethics Institute at Pennsylvania State University — traces the…
Issues
New Voices
,Apr 14, 2017
With Looming Execution and Serious Innocence Concerns, Calls Mount for Virginia to Grant Clemency to Ivan Teleguz
Amid mounting concerns that Virginia may execute an innocent man on April 25, a diverse group of religious, political, and business leaders are calling on Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to grant clemency to Ivan Teleguz (pictured). Their pleas for clemency stress that Teleguz was convicted based upon highly unreliable testimony and sentenced to death based upon false testimony that he had been involved in a fabricated Pennsylvania murder that had, in fact, never occurred. Teleguz was…
Issues
Religion
,New Voices
,Apr 12, 2017
Louisiana Legislature Considers Bipartisan Measure to Abolish Death Penalty
Three Louisiana legislators, all of them former law enforcement officials, have proposed legislation to abolish the state’s death penalty. Sen. Dan Claitor (R‑Baton Rouge, pictured), a former New Orleans prosecutor who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, is the primary author of Senate Bill 142, which would eliminate the death penalty for offenses committed on or after August 1, 2017. The bill’s counterpart in the House of Representatives, House Bill 101, is sponsored by Rep. Terry Landry…
Issues
New Voices
,Mar 30, 2017
NEW VOICES: Bipartisan Former Governors Support Death Penalty Exemption for Those With Severe Mental Illness
In a joint op-ed for The Washington Post, former governors Bob Taft (pictured, l.) and Joseph E. Kernan (pictured, r.) have expressed bipartisan support for proposed legislation that would prohibit the use of the death penalty against people who have severe mental illness. Taft, a former Republican governor of Ohio, and Kernan, a former Democratic governor of Indiana, call the execution of mentally ill defendants “an inhumane practice that fails to respect common standards of decency and…
Research
New Voices
,Mar 21, 2017
Harper’s Magazine Profiles Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty
A feature story in the March issue of Harper’s Magazine explores the growing conservative movement against the death penalty, with a focus on the group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty and its national advocacy coordinator, Marc Hyden (pictured). Hyden, who previously worked on Republican campaigns and was a field representative for the NRA, explained the genesis of his views against the death penalty. His opposition to the death penalty came from his pro-life beliefs, concerns…
Issues
New Voices
,Oct 19, 2016
NEW VOICES: Former Reagan Attorney General and Former Manhattan Prosecutor Speak Out In Possible Innocence Case
Edwin Meese III (pictured), who served as U.S. Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan, and Robert Morgenthau, the long-time district attorney of Manhattan who served as a U.S. attorney under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, believe that Alabama death row prisoner William Kuenzel is innocent and are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case. Meese and Morgenthau belong to different political parties and take opposing views on capital punishment, but both believe that…
Research
New Voices
,May 18, 2016
Support for the Death Penalty by Republican Legislators No Longer a Sure Thing
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…
Issues
New Voices
,Mar 01, 2016
NEW VOICES: Republican Former Death Penalty Supporter Leads Repeal Effort in Utah
Stephen Urquhart (pictured), a Republican state senator in Utah, supported the death penalty until about a year ago, when a friend convinced him that capital punishment didn’t fit his conservative beliefs. Now Urquhart sees the death penalty as inefficient, costly, and wrong and is the lead sponsor of a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. He said concerns about the cost of the death penalty and the risk of executing an innocent person changed his stance on the issue. In discussions with…
Issues
New Voices
,Feb 18, 2016
NEW VOICES: A Leader of Florida Federation of Young Republicans Calls for Re-examination of Death Penalty
Saying that if one is looking to identify “failed government programs …, Florida’s death penalty certainly fills the bill,” Brian Empric (pictured), vice-chairman of the Florida Federation of Young Republicans, presents a conservative case against the death penalty. In a recent guest column for the Orlando Sentinel, Empric says that — as the Florida legislature weighs its response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hurst v. Florida — the state should halt all executions “[u]ntil the…
Research
New Voices
,Executions Overview
,Jan 27, 2016
Missouri Likely to See Change After Historic High in Executions
A decline in executions is likely in Missouri after two years of unusually high numbers. In 2014, Missouri tied with Texas for the most executions in the U.S., and it was second to Texas in 2015. However, changing attitudes about the death penalty — similar to national shifts — are evident in Missouri’s sentencing trends: no one was sentenced to death in Missouri in 2014 or 2015, and less than one person per year has been sentenced to death in the past seven years. Moreover, a bill with bi-partisan…
Issues
New Voices
,Aug 09, 2007
NEW VOICES: Former Conservative Congressman Questions Fairness and Accuracy of the Death Penalty
Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, a well-known conservative voice and a death penalty supporter, recently questioned the fairness and accuracy of capital punishment in an opinion piece published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Barr noted that a recent University of Virginia study of wrongful conviction cases has raised serious questions about the reliability of eyewitness identification. He also applauded the Georgia Supreme Court’s recent decision to grant a hearing to death row inmate…
Issues
New Voices
,Feb 02, 2007
Nebraska Repeal Bill Passes Unanimously in Committee
For the first time in nearly two decades, members of the Nebraska’s unicameral legislature will have an opportunity to debate a bill that would repeal the state’s death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life without parole and an order of restitution. Members of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced the bill, noting that their colleagues in the full senate should have a chance to debate the measure. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Ernie Chambers, introduced a similar…
Jun 21, 2004
NEW VOICES: U.N. Ambassador Nominee Opposed to the Death Penalty
Former Republican Senator John Danforth of Missouri, President Bush’s nominee to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, is a long-time opponent of capital punishment. During his tenure in the Senate, Danforth made his position on the death penalty clear in a 1994 Senate floor statement: “I think we should do away with the death penalty. As a matter of personal conscience, I have always opposed the death penalty…. We have had up or down votes on capital punishment. I always vote against…
Aug 15, 2003
NEW VOICES: Death Penalty Fails to Meet Conservative Standards
In a recent Greensboro News & Record op-ed, Marshall Hurley, a long-time Republican in North Carolina, questioned giving the state authority to carry out executions when the current practice of capital punishment fails to meet conservative standards and risks innocent lives. He stated: For those who believe in the virtue of limited government and criticize roundly when government does not work well, capital punishment does not meet fundamental conservative standards. Not only is it applied…