With a Georgia lawmaker leading the way, a coalition of conservatives against the death penalty began to make waves last week.
Georgia Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty formally announced its formation on Jan. 19. Made up of Republican lawmakers, a college student and nonprofit leaders, the group is quite diverse, but its mission is simple: To educate people on capital punishment and eradicate it.
“I am skeptical of our government’s ability to implement efficient and effective programs, and so a healthy skepticism of our state’s death penalty is warranted, “ state Rep. Brett Harrell (R) said in a statement. “Many individuals have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to die. Meanwhile, taxpayers are forced to pay for this risky government program, even though it costs more than life without parole.”
Marc Hyden, the national coordinator of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty told TheBlaze that the first step would be for the state legislature to “re-evaluate” the death penalty and “have a candid discussion about [it], educate themselves, find out what it does in practice rather than in theory.”
“Right now it would be imprudent to bring a repeal bill,” he said. “Once there’s this education process, then we can move on to the next step.”
But while his organization fights to get Georgia lawmakers to re-examine the policy, the fight among conservatives regarding the issue wages on. And the number of Americans in favor of capital punishment is dwindling.
A September Pew Research poll found that only about 49 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for someone who was convicted of murder — the lowest that number has been in more than four decades. Republicans, the poll found, still greatly favor the practice more than Democrats, 72 percent to 34 percent respectively.
The number of Republicans who favor the death penalty has declined since 20 years ago when 87 percent viewed the practice positively. However, it’s the Democrats who have greatly lost support for the death penalty over the years as 71 percent supported it 20 years ago, the poll found.
For Hyden, there are multiple reasons why conservatives should be in ardent opposition to the death penalty — chief among them, fiscal responsibility and a true pro-life mentality.
As anti-abortion people refer to themselves pro-life, Hyden argued that protecting an “innocent child” should extend outside the womb as innocent people can be wrongly convicted and end up on death row.
“If you want to be able to execute the worst of the worst, the most heinous of killers, then you have to have a government program in place, and the breadth of that program means that accidents will happen and innocent people will fall through the cracks,” Hyden said. “It’s a matter of collateral damage. And a person who is pro-life should safeguard innocent life.”
“How many innocent people are you willing to kill in order to kill some of the most heinous killers? That’s a tough question to answer, and I’m not comfortable with executing any innocent people,” he added.
...
Connect With Us