Students Sit In on Death Penalty Debate. The death penalty was debated Thursday at the University of Arkansas School of Law.
The federalist society hosted the debate panel which enabled students and other attendees to hear strong arguments for an against the death penalty.
"There are some crimes for which nothing else even resembles justice so we should not forbid the jury in any and all circumstances from imposing the death penalty, we should trust the jury's judgment," said Professor Bill Otis, of Georgetown University.
I think when you look at the death penalty Arkansas and nationwide you find a broken system , you find a system that's incredibly costly, that's not affective in making society safer and perhaps most troublesome makes mistakes..." said Ben Jones of Equal Justice USA.
Arkansas has not carried out an execution since 2005. 34 people are currently on death row in the state and earlier this year the governor scheduled the executions of 8 inmates. Those were stayed two weeks ago by the Arkansas Supreme Court over litigation regarding the lethal injection drugs.
Watch the news Coverage on it here!
"There are some crimes for which nothing else even resembles justice so we should not forbid the jury in any and all circumstances from imposing the death penalty, we should trust the jury's judgment," said Professor Bill Otis, of Georgetown University.
I think when you look at the death penalty Arkansas and nationwide you find a broken system , you find a system that's incredibly costly, that's not affective in making society safer and perhaps most troublesome makes mistakes..." said Ben Jones of Equal Justice USA.
Arkansas has not carried out an execution since 2005. 34 people are currently on death row in the state and earlier this year the governor scheduled the executions of 8 inmates. Those were stayed two weeks ago by the Arkansas Supreme Court over litigation regarding the lethal injection drugs.
Watch the news Coverage on it here!
Last week, Marc Hyden spoke to a crowded auditorium at Hillsdale College to discuss the national state of the death penalty. The event was covered by Jason Dafnis of the Hillsdale Daily News. He wrote,
In his lecture, Hyden proposed a simple question (to a group not coincidentally made up largely of Conservative college students): Should a Conservative favor the death penalty?
To help give context to that question, Hyden’s presentation included national examples of Americans wrongly imprisoned and sent to death row for crimes of which they were later proven innocent – though for some, exoneration came after their sentences were carried out.
Wrongful conviction is just one aspect of what Hyden calls an expensive, flawed and illogical system of capital punishment. He cited studies that have shown wrongful convictions and terminations based on mistaken identity, prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering and human error – and those aren’t to mention the financial impact of the institution.
Hyden said that in some states, sentencing a convicted criminal to capital punishment costs “more than life without parole” due to lengthy trials, protracted court proceedings and cost of testing.
Nebraska’s
death penalty mess continues to be a subject of interest. As we alerted you a
few weeks ago, the Daily Show with Trevor Noah covered the Cornhusker State’s
capital punishment quagmire. One of the repeal bill’s primary Republican
champions, Senator Colby Coash, was prominently featured in the segment. If you
missed it, watch
it here!
While
Nebraska’s strong Republican support for repealing the death penalty was
impressive, conservatives in other states are following their example.
Legislative sessions haven’t begun in most states, but already a host of
conservatives across the nation have submitted bills to end the death penalty.
Kansas’ Rep.
Becker, Kentucky’s Rep.
Floyd, Missouri’s Sen.
Wieland, North Carolina’s Rep.
Hardister, Ohio’s Rep.
Antani, and South Dakota’s Sen.
Rusch have all introduced such legislation, and more Republican-sponsored
bills are likely to be filed.
Conservatives Concerned in the
media
You
may have seen us in the media this month, but if not, here are a few of our
favorite pieces:
•
CCATDP’s Ben Jones penned an article in the Life
Matters Journal outlining why conservatives in Nebraska led the repeal
effort. I described how the death penalty is inconsistent with conservatism in
the Louisville
Courier-Journal, and Heather Beaudoin wrote what being pro-life means to her
in Do
Justice.
• Conservative media outlet Townhall covered Heather Beaudoin’s work with the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which recently changed its pro-death penalty position.
• I was interviewed by Sputnik about Nebraska Governor Ricketts’ continued failed attempts to restart executions.
• The Arkansas Traveler and NWA Fayetteville both covered Ben Jones’ recent speaking engagement in Arkansas.
• Additionally, CCATDP was in another Louisville Courier-Journal article, in the Hillsdale Daily News, and on the Scott Adams radio show.
• Conservative media outlet Townhall covered Heather Beaudoin’s work with the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which recently changed its pro-death penalty position.
• I was interviewed by Sputnik about Nebraska Governor Ricketts’ continued failed attempts to restart executions.
• The Arkansas Traveler and NWA Fayetteville both covered Ben Jones’ recent speaking engagement in Arkansas.
• Additionally, CCATDP was in another Louisville Courier-Journal article, in the Hillsdale Daily News, and on the Scott Adams radio show.
Conservatives Concerned in the field
CCATDP
continued to present the conservative case against the death penalty all around
the country. On November 5, Ben Jones traveled to Arkansas where he engaged in a
lively
debate hosted by the University of Arkansas Law School’s Federalist Society.
Ben debunked the many myths used by those who oppose repealing the death
penalty. Following the debate, numerous attendees approached him to express
their support and gratitude.
I
participated in a panel
discussion at the Central Oklahoma Political Science Association on November
6. Many political science professionals and professors attended the event and
were eager to learn about the national state of the death penalty.
On
November 10, I lectured at one of the most conservative educational institutions
in America, Hillsdale College. The auditorium was crowded with conservative
students, many of whom were shocked to learn about the death penalty’s perpetual
failures. A large portion of the crowd, however, already opposed capital
punishment because they were already aware that it fails to align with
conservative principles.
Upcoming
Saturday,
November 21, I will speak at the University of South Florida’s Voter’s
Forum in Tampa, which is an event hosted by the school’s Young Americans for
Liberty chapter. If you’re in the Tampa area, then please RSVP, drop by, and say
hello!
Get involved!
Let
your conservative and evangelical friends know that the national death penalty
narrative is changing. Click
here to share the Townhall article announcing the NAE’s new death penalty
position.
CCATDP’s Ben Jones authored an article in the Harvard Law School Record. Ben described why those on the political right should oppose capital punishment. He wrote,
Specifically, the conservative case against the death penalty consists of three principal arguments: the death penalty’s incompatibility with (1) limited government, (2) fiscal responsibility, and (3) promoting a culture of life.
However, Ben noted,
These reasons, of course, do not persuade all conservatives. One objection raised is that, by definition, conservatives support the death penalty. Even if someone is Republican, pro-life, and fiscally conservative, they lose their conservative credentials by opposing the death penalty. But making capital punishment a litmus-test issue proves difficult to defend because it disqualifies as conservative no small number of figures – Robert George,Abby Johnson, Ron Paul, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jay Sekulow, and others – well respected by various conservative constituencies. This view also puts a movement committed to religious liberty in the uncomfortable position of expelling from its ranks those deeply opposed to the death penalty on religious grounds.
