The death penalty remains in steep decline across the United States, and a recently released report (PDF) illustrates how capital punishment is falling out of favor even in Texas. According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, this year the Lone Star State sentenced the fewest number of people to die since 1976. Furthermore, Texas has executed seven people in 2016, which represents a 20-year low. This is incredibly encouraging and demonstrates the hard work of many people in Texas. It also underscores what we’ve known for years: the death penalty is dying.
Conservatives Concerned in the media
News outside of Texas also attracted a fair amount of media attention this month, and CCATDP was available to comment.
- Executions in Oregon have been non-existent for many years, but there are still many people on death row there. Friend of CCTADP, Drew Johnson, and I both wrote op-eds presenting the conservative case for commuting all Oregon death row inmates’ sentences to life without parole.
- As a budding push to repeal the death penalty in Nevada gains steam, the conservative news outlet Townhall interviewed me on the state’s recent developments.
- I was also a guest on the Tom Anderson Show to discuss Alaska’s death penalty history, and I returned to the Capitol Hill Show with Tim Constantine to speak about Alabama’s botched execution.
- Our Charles Koch Communications Fellow, Thomas Johnson, penned an article laying out the conservative case against capital punishment in the Seguin Gazette, and Katherine Dwyer, our Koch Intern, wrote a piece describing the biblical death penalty.
- I authored an op-ed for the Daily Caller in which I explained why capital punishment’s future appears bleak, despite the recent referendum results.
Upcoming
CCATDP will be returning to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) for the 5th year in a row. The event will be in National Harbor, Maryland, from February 22-25 in 2017. If you’re in the area, we hope you’ll drop by and say hello!
Support our work
In just four years, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty has shattered the myth that all conservatives support capital punishment. That’s because of you. You’ve helped us expose the many ways that the death penalty is inconsistent with conservative values. Together, we have built the first and only national group led by conservatives, exclusively for conservatives, to come together and lead on this issue. Today, CCATDP is a sought after voice on the death penalty, and people are listening.
Please help catapult CCATDP into the next year of groundbreaking change with a tax-deductible donation today.
