The Cost of Death: Conservatives Take a Fresh Look at the Death Penalty

WASHINGTON - Nearly 3,000 inmates sit on death row across the U.S.

A death sentence is usually reserved for the most vicious offenders.

Advocates say it brings comfort to the victim’s family and saves the taxpayers money.

But a group of conservatives say the numbers don’t add up.

The Cost to Execute

“Every cost study ever conducted shows it’s at least three times more expensive to execute this person,” said Heather Beaudoin of Justice Project USA.

According to Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, a death sentence costs taxpayers more in the long run.

In most cases there are at least two trials, one to convict and one for sentencing. That comes with a lot of added costs.

Then there is the overall cost increase of housing a death row inmate.

According to a report by Fox News, the cost of housing inmates on death row is much greater because “inmates are housed in single rooms” with added security.

A Forbes Magazine study shows the annual cost for life imprisonment in California runs about $11.5 million while the costs of death sentences balloon close to S137 million.

And usually, that cost stays at home.

“We’ve seen cases that have nearly bankrupted counties because that cost usually falls on the shoulders of the county,” Beaudoin claimed.

A group of conservatives and lawmakers meeting in Washington want measures that lead to the repeal of the death penalty.

They believe this sentence goes against conservative beliefs including fiscal responsibility, the value of life and limited government.

“We are supposed to have a healthy distrust of the power of government and a cautious approach to a growing and powerful government,” said Colby Coash, a former Nebraska state legislature.

Beaudoin said that distrust is warranted especially when lives are at stake.

 Approximately, 157 people are alive because their death row convictions were overturned.

“Eyewitness accounts are incredibly troubling and not something we can stand on. There is a woman named Jennifer Thompson-Cannino. She misidentified her rapist,” Beaudoin explained.

“She studied his face, while he was attacking her to make sure she was going to live to see the day to put this man behind bars. She studied his eyebrows, everything. She identified the wrong person and the wrong man spent years in prison,” she continued.

Cannino and the man she misidentified, Ronald Cotton, now tour the country together speaking on the dangers of wrongful convictions.

Race, Poverty and Politics

In addition to cases like Cotton’s, Beaudoin sees examples when politics, poverty and race come into play.

“If you live in one county where the prosecutor is maybe up for re-election, or is a big fan of the death penalty, you’re much more likely to receive a death sentence. You can commit the very same crime in the county next door and not receive a death sentence,” she said.

“If you kill a white person, you’re more than likely to be sentenced to death. That is very problematic for conservatives and evangelicals who care about the value of life,” she continued.

She also explained statistically defendants who are able to afford their own attorney fare better than those with court appointed attorneys and don’t end up seeing a death sentence.

Does Justice Equal Comfort?

But what about convicted killers like James Holmes?

Holmes murdered 12 people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

He was given life in prison after jurors failed to reach unanimous verdict.

To those who think death would have brought comfort to the victims and their families, Beaudoin says think again.

She said after meeting with victims’ families over the years, most say they don’t find the solace they thought they would after the execution.

“We say aren’t victims better served when we focus on their needs. What is it that is going to help them get through? Is it access to counseling? Is it employment if they need to take time off from their job? Is it funeral costs? How can we help victims’ families?” she challenged.

Beaudoin points to her Christian faith as the passion behind her cause.

“It was God-given. I feel very called to this work.  It’s really about redemption. I believe that God has a plan for everyone,” she stated.

And she and conservatives like her plan to take that message to Washington to the rest of the nation.

Source: CBN News, Amber C. Strong, October 29, 2017

Conservatives' distaste for death penalty sends support to 45-year low

Support for the death penalty plummeted this year to its lowest level in four and half decades, a change driven in part by a substantial drop in favor among conservatives.

According to the latest Gallup poll, 55 percent of U.S. adults support capital punishment for convicted murderers, a low not seen since March 1972. Among Republicans, support has tumbled 12 percent since last year.

"The groups that were thought to be automatic death penalty supporters are no longer automatic death penalty supporters," said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that has been critical of the administration of capital punishment. "The issue is becoming less partisan in that now almost a third of sponsors of death penalty abolition bills are Republicans. And the states in which we are seeing more and more activity in terms of abolition are red states."

A day before Gallup put out its latest findings, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty put out a report examining the growing Republican interest in state-level bills to abolish the death penalty.

"The Republican momentum to end capital punishment is real," Mark Hyden, CCATDP national advocacy coordinator, said during a Wednesday press conference. "It's clearly gaining steam, and I believe this increased conservative opposition signals that the death penalty's days are, in fact, numbered."

The report cites wrongful convictions, high costs and pro-life concerns as reasons some conservative legislators have turned to abolition efforts. The group looked at legislative efforts dating back to 2000 and found more than 210 Republicans sponsors of repeal legislation in that time frame, though none in Texas.

While CCATDP has been examining the death penalty since its founding in 2013, Gallup has been asking Americans about their views on capital punishment since 1936. Support hit a peak in the early 1950s, when 68 percent of respondents were behind the practice.

But it fell out of public favor in the late 50s and into the 60s, with as little as 42 percent of the population supporting it in 1966.

The last time support was under 60 percent was 1972, four months after the Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia halted executions. But polling numbers climbed in the following years, even as states began bringing back capital punishment toward the end of the decade.

The practice enjoyed its most widespread support during the tough-on-crime 1990s, peaking at 80 percent favor in 1994. Since then, it's been a gradual downslide.

Pew Research surveys have shown similar numbers and trend lines, though last year's data showed a slightly lower dip with just 49 percent of respondents supporting the death penalty.

While the latest Gallup poll didn't include questions exploring the reason for decreasing interest in the death penalty, a 2015 Pew poll found that questions about its value as a deterrent, concerns about executing an innocent person and issues surrounding racial disparities were all among reasons respondents cited for opposing the practice.

Some experts say the growing media attention around a string of botched executions in recent years could be diminishing support as well.

"Most people don't change their views about the death penalty because of reason, they change their views because they feel like it," Dunham said. "The botched executions bring home in a visceral way problems with the death penalty that problems with arbitrariness or bad lawyering never do."

And a few years after support for the death penalty started dropping, so did the number of executions carried out every year.

"As public support for the death penalty diminishes, juries return it less and less frequently - and as it is used less and less, support for it drops," Dunham said.

Although 2017 has seen a slight uptick in executions over the year before, the general downward trend still holds. And at the same time, there's been a decrease in the number of new death sentences imposed per year.

"One thing that's interesting in the Gallup poll, though, is that 39 percent think it isn't used enough and I think that suggests that there's a certain core support for the death penalty," Dunham said. "Half of the public thinks it's imposed fairly but you have to wonder how sustainable any public policy is that only half of the public thinks is done fairly."

Source: chron.com, Keri Blakinger, October 29, 2017

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde