Challenging the Death Penalty’s Conservative Political Roots

Although death penalty advocate Marc Hyden might cut across the grain with many other conservatives, this member of the organization Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty outlines his personal shift in opinion towards the death penalty as it is currently applied in the United States.

His organization is a national network of conservatives who believe that the death penalty is inconsistent with conservatives’ core principles.

“As a conservative, I used to support the death penalty, until I gave it what I call the conservative litmus test. I ask myself, is this program pro-life? And of course it’s not because it risks killing innocent life. Then I ask myself, is it fiscally responsible? The answer is no, because it’s far more expensive than life without parole,” said Hyden, the National Advocacy Coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.

“And then I ask myself, is this representative of a limited government? And I just don’t believe that giving an error-prone government the power to kill you is a form of limited government, and therefore I couldn’t support it any longer.”

Hyden talks about attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and wondering how he would be received his peers. “I was welcome with open arms. I had so many people come up to me and say, ‘Where have you been for so long? I thought I was the only conservative who had problems with the death penalty.’”

When asked about the issue of taking an alternative stance on the death penalty, and how this as a conservative can kill a candidates chances as a Republican candidate, Hyden said he works with many candidates and prominent conservative figures on both the state and national level who agree with his position.

“When you put it in terms that conservatives understand, and are passionate about, they’re more than likely to get onboard afterwards.”

Hyden says that despite some trepidation by some elected officials to embrace opposition to the death penalty, six states in the past seven years have decided to do away with the death penalty, with Republicans voting to do repeal it. “And so far, from what I’ve been able to tell, I think only one of them was not reelected due to the death penalty, and the way their constituents viewed it,” he said.

“I think when there’s an education process, and people know what’s at stake – and what kind of investment goes into the death penalty – and then what kind of return you get on it - because is doesn’t deter crime - and it fails murder victim’s family members, so this is just an expensive government program, without any real benefit.”

Addressing the costs of the death penalty vs. incarcerating an individual in prison for life, Hyden says this varies by state, but generally speaking, he is convinced it costs less to keep someone in prison for life.

He points to the death penalty in North Carolina, which was analyzed by Duke University, which concluded in a study that by simply replacing the death penalty, each case could save around $2 million by doing away with executions and implementing life without parole. According to Hyden, this included only the cost of the defense, appeals and housing the prisoner on death row.

“In California, for instance, they’ve executed 13 people, but they’ve shelled out about $4 billion on a death penalty program, but they actually haven’t executed anyone since 2006.”

While working with the families of murder victims, Hyden said he finds that many of them are conservatives who oppose the current system of the death penalty because it’s a long, drawn out process.

“It takes decades for an execution to happen, if it ever does, and actually only 10 percent of all death sentences result in an execution. So there’s appeal after appeal over the course of 10, 20 or 30 years, and every time this happens, they have to relive some of the most traumatic moments of their lives.”

He said there’s a definite myth out there that conservative Republicans are all opposed to the death penalty. “If you’re a conservative, you support the death penalty. But I tell you, after learning about all the death penalty’s failures, I think the conservative thing to do is oppose the death penalty – you can support it in theory, but the way that it’s run, there’s nothing conservative about it.”

Watch the full interview to also hear the role of religion in determining the value of human life, as well as Hyden’s view of what impact it would have on the public if executions were televised for everybody to see.