Capital Punishment Updates





Pennsylvania Governor Halts Executions

On February 13, 2015, Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania announced a halt to all executions. He said the moratorium will continue until he has "received and reviewed the forthcoming report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment, established under Senate Resolution 6 of 2011, and there is an opportunity to address all concerns satisfactorily."
Governor Tom Wolf
Pennsylvania has carried out three executions since 1976, all of inmates who waived their appeals. The last person executed was Gary Heidnick in 1999. An execution was scheduled for March 4, but Wolf granted the inmate a reprieve. Pennsylvania's death row is the fifth largest in the U.S., with 188 inmates as of October 1, 2014. State Senator Daylin Leach has introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania.
Governor Wolf said, "This moratorium is in no way an expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous crimes. This decision is based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 150 people have been exonerated from death row nationwide, including six men in Pennsylvania." His statement citedDPIC's Innocence List.
The six men exonerated from death row in Pennsylvania are Neil Ferber (1986), Jay Smith (1992), William Nieves (2000), Thoma Kimbell (2002), Nicholas Yarris (2003), and Harold Wilson (2005).
Highlights from Governor Wolf'sstatement announcing the moratorium:
"This unending cycle of death warrants and appeals diverts resources from the judicial system and forces the families and loved ones of victims to relive their tragedies each time a new round of warrants and appeals commences. The only certainty in the current system is that the process will be drawn out, expensive, and painful for all involved."
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"If the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is going to take the irrevocable step of executing a human being, its capital sentencing system must be infallible. Pennsylvania’s system is riddled with flaws, making it error prone, expensive, and anything but infallible."
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"Numerous recent studies have called into question the accuracy, and fundamental fairness of Pennsylvania’s capital sentencing system. These studies suggest that inherent biases affect the makeup of death row. While data is incomplete, there are strong indications that a person is more likely to be charged with a capital offense and sentenced to death if he is poor or of a minority racial group, and particularly where the victim of the crime was Caucasian."

SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW OKLAHOMA'S LETHAL INJECTIONS

UPDATE: (2/17). The FloridaSupreme Court (5-2) has granted a stay of execution for Jerry Correll while the U.S. Supreme Court is considering Oklahoma's use of midazolam. Oklahoma and Florida use essentially the same drug protocol. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called for a stay of all executions while the Oklahoma case is under review.

On Jan. 23, the Supreme Courtagreed to hear Glossip v. Gross(No. 14-7955), a case in which inmates facing execution in Oklahoma raised objections to the state's continuing use of drugs that were involved in botched executions in 2014. The case will be argued April 29. Four Justices had voted earlier to grant a stay for Charles Warner, who was originally part of the case that the Supreme Court agreed to hear, but was executed on Jan. 15. Justice Sotomayor, writing for the dissent, said:
"I am deeply troubled by this evidence suggesting that midazolam cannot constitutionally be used as the first drug in a three-drug lethal injection protocol....The questions before us are especially important now, given States’ increasing reliance on new and scientifically untested methods of execution. Petitioners have committed horrific crimes, and should be punished. But the Eighth Amendment guarantees that no one should be subjected to an execution that causes searing, unnecessary pain before death."
(Warner v. Gross, No. 14A761 (Jan. 15, 2015) (Sotomayor, J., dissenting)). See Lethal Injections.
State legislatures across the United States are gearing up for session, and more and more of them are considering death penalty repeal bills. Republicans have sponsored such legislation in Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, Wyoming, Montana, and Missouri. Other states are also looking into measures to end capital punishment.
While some states are contemplating replacing the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole, other states are attempting to tinker with the broken capital punishment system. One such state was Idaho. The Gem State was prepared to evaluate a measure that would have made the source of their death penalty drugs a secret. This, of course, would be a clear violation of transparency in government that conservatives demand. The Idaho legislature agreed and halted the bill from proceeding to a vote.
In more somber news, the State of Georgia recently executed a man who was regarded to be intellectually disabled. Warren Lee Hill was convicted and executed, and while his guilt was not in doubt, multiple medical professionals have claimed that he was mentally disabled. They stated that he had the mental capacity of an 11 year-old. His lawyers claimed that his execution was an obvious violation of the US Supreme Court decision of Atkins v. Virginia, which forbids the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Conservatives Concerned in the Media
CCATDP continues to be a force in the media where we were prominently featured in a great number of outlets.

• I was a guest on the Q with a View radio show where Heather Beaudoin was a guest last September.

• I was interviewed for the Sunshine News Network and the Idaho Reporter. Catholic news reporter, Carol Zimmerman also interviewed me in a story that was spread throughout the Catholic world including the American Catholic, Catholic Sun, Catholic Philly, the Boston Pilot and more.

• Heather Beaudoin was interviewed on the Odyssey Network. You can see her video here, which went viral. Her appearance was mentioned in the Huffington Post, Day 1, Sojouners, and others!

• I authored an op-ed published in the Deseret News following the state’s decision to attempt to bring back the firing squad as an execution method. I was also a guest on the Rod Arquette Radio show in Utah discussing the firing squad.

• Ben Jones wrote an article in the Libertarian Christian explaining why Christians should rethink capital punishment.

• CCATDP supporter, conservative Kansas State Representative Bill Sutton, wrote an op-ed for the Watchdog highlighting the death penalty’s financial waste in a time when Kansas is looking for ways to trim the state’s budget.
Red States for Repeal
We’ve already seen numerous conservative states push towards repeal while being led by Republicans, but many of these red states are also creating their own Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty groups. Montana has the original Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty group, but Nebraska, Tennessee, and North Carolina have also created groups recently. In addition, conservatives are talking in many other states. Also, check out what Kansans and Georgians are saying about capital punishment.
Conservatives Concerned in the Field
On January 23, Ben Jones of CCATDP exhibited at the Students for Life of America East Coast National Conference, which is one of the largest gatherings of pro-life youth in the country. Dozens of students visited our booth and signed up, interested in becoming more active in efforts to repeal the death penalty.
I presented the conservative case against the death penalty at the Young Americans for Liberty chapter of the University of Delaware. The event was attended by conservatives and libertarians who all left very concerned about capital punishment.
CCATDP’s Heather Beaudoin testified on February 13 before the Montana House Judiciary committee. She urged them to vote to repeal the death penalty because of its monumental failures.
Upcoming
On February 19, I will be presenting the conservative case against the death penalty at the Georgia Center Right Coalition meeting at the Georgia capitol. The event will be at 10:00 AM in room 415 in the Coverdell Legislative Office Building in Atlanta, Georgia.
Following the Georgia Center Right meeting, I will discuss why conservatives are increasingly opposing capital punishment at the Georgia Tea Party’s weekly meeting on February 19 at 7:00 pm at 900 Roswell Street in Marietta, Georgia. Both events are open to the public, and I hope to see you there!
Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty will return to CPAC February 25-28, where it all began in 2013. Our team will consist of conservatives from Michigan, Connecticut, Nebraska, Florida, and my home state of Georgia. I hope you’ll drop by our booth and say hello. We will be at booth number 738.