As a conservative who holds governments accountable for a living, I support Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s announcement to suspend the death penalty’s use. Our political beliefs may differ, but when it comes to capital punishment, the State Attorney and I are in perfect alignment.
Ayala is correct in saying Florida’s death penalty system is broken. And conservatives should agree. The indisputable fact, regardless of your politics, is that the state’s record on capital punishment is abysmal.
Whether the issue is innocence, the impact on murder victim’s families, or the high cost, Florida’s death penalty system has failed – especially when we as conservatives apply our core principles of individual liberty and limited government to capital punishment.
Florida has wrongly convicted and sentenced more people to die than any other state. Twenty-six people, some of whom spent decades facing execution at the hands of their own government, have been set free since the state resumed capital punishment in 1972. Liberty-loving Florida conservatives are increasingly deciding that the very real prospect of letting the government kill innocent people is unacceptable.
Limited government? I don’t think so. Government run amok is more like it.
To keep the machinery of death operating, the state is violating the spirit of its open government “sunshine laws.” As sources for Florida's lethal-injection mix have dried up, the Department of Corrections has refused to say how it is obtaining the drugs and won’t reveal how much the state has stockpiled. I don’t know about you, but the mere thought of government operating in secret – with no oversight or accountability – when lives are on the line sends a chill down my spine.
Florida taxpayers are also paying a high price for the state’s irreparably broken death penalty. More than a dozen states have discovered that capital cases are up to 10 times more expensive than other similar noncapital cases due to up front defense and prosecution costs, appeals, and incarceration. But even with nearly 400 death row inmates, Florida has never made a serious attempt to determine the fiscal impacts. Legislative quick fixes in the wake of court rulings have just ratcheted up the costs. Fiscal conservatives should be appalled.
One stunning fact is that most Florida counties have already stopped using the death penalty. Just six of Florida’s 67 counties account for more than half of the state’s 89 executions. Four of those counties have been branded as “outliers” for their overuse of capital punishment. Orange County, prior to Aramis Ayala’s election, was among them. (Miami-Dade, Duval, and Pinellas are the others.)
In reality, more than half of all Florida counties have never performed a single execution. The death penalty has been dying a slow death in Florida, but taxpayers keep getting the bill for the few counties that still cling to it.
To make matters worse, in most cases, a death sentence is only a false promise of closure for murder victim’s families, who are re-traumatized by years of court appearances and publicity.
Conservative lawmakers nationwide are becoming increasingly concerned about the death penalty. During the past two years, Republicans have sponsored bills to repeal capital punishment in a dozen states. Conservative Republicans have been turning against the death penalty because they understand that the same power-hungry, error-prone, and wasteful government that we constantly rail against should not be entrusted with the power to put people to death.
As conservatives, we should applaud the decision of the new state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties to stop using the death penalty. Nothing could be more conservative than putting a stop to a wasteful and disastrous government program.
Drew Johnson is a senior fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance and a contributor to The Daily Caller. He also founded and served as president of the Beacon Center of Tennessee.
Comments
The Death Penalty is a MUST
Study after study indicates
I do not care if it deters
So what if so-and0so agrees
Where have you read that thé
When someone is put away for
Sane humans over the age of
Accurate, but you left out
OH, I DO support LIFE;... for
Not the same thing. An
Then you will need to get the
Sorry, but when a person who
I wonder what costs less.
That's kinda like "I wonder
Then if that is how you feel
Interesting perspective...I