Last week, Nebraska abolished the death penalty, with the legislature overriding the governor’s veto—and conservatives led the charge. It’s dramatic proof of the conservative revolution on justice reform, which has occurred in various states across the country. And it could be the sign of things to come.
As Shari Silberstein of Equal Justice USA noted for Newsweek, Nebraska isn’t the only conservative state with Republican legislators targeting capital punishment.
Nebraska may be the first red state to join the official list, but it is not the first to try. Republicans have sponsored death penalty repeal bills in red states like Kansas, Kentucky, South Dakota and Wyoming. Montana’s Republican-dominated House of Representatives voted 50-50 on death penalty repeal earlier this year. Meanwhile, Republican support for the death penalty dropped a full five percentage points last year – a bigger drop than the previous 19 years combined.
Some conservative objections to the death penalty are fiscal—capital punishment is extremely costly. Other conservatives are worried about the aspect of government overreach and error.
“The number of exonerations proves that some people have been wrongly executed,” Nebraska Sen. Ernie Chambers, who sponsored the legislation that ended capital punishment, said earlier this month.
There are also moral concerns among Catholics and evangelical Republicans. Nebraska Sen. Colby Coash told the Washington Post he opposes capital punishment because “I am pro-life.”
Heather Beaudoin of Conservatives Concerned About The Death Penalty told the Daily Caller, “I think that the main reason that evangelicals are paying attention is because we believe in redemption.”
“God has the ability to transform their lives and use them for good.”
Meanwhile, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain “humane” lethal injections. One controversial cocktail is currently up for consideration by the Supreme Court following several high-profile botched executions.
“Capital punishment runs counter to core conservative principles of life, fiscal responsibility and limited government,” Georgia Republican party leader David J. Burge wrote in an op-ed earlier this year. “The reality is that capital punishment is nothing more than an expensive, wasteful and risky government program.”
