Entries tagged with “Conservatives”

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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…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Public Opinion

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Recent Legislative Activity

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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…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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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…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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United States Supreme Court

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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…

Policy Issues

Representation

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United States Supreme Court

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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…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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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…

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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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…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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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…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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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…

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Upcoming Executions

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Military

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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…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Executions Overview

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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…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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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…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Victims' Families

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Deterrence

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Victims' Families

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Recent Legislative Activity

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Religion

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Costs

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Innocence

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Race

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DPI Reports

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Public Opinion

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Costs

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Clemency

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Deterrence

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Recent Legislative Activity

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Religion

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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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…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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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…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Innocence

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Innocence

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New Voices

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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…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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Sentencing Data

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New Voices

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Executions Overview

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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…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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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…

Policy Issues

Sentencing Alternatives

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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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…

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…

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…