“Without a definitive judicial ruling or other galvanizing event, a perennial American argument is ending. Capital punishment is withering away.”
—Conservative Columnist George Will in the Washington Post
You know the death penalty is on its last gasp when one of the most heavily Republican states in the nation votes to repeal it.
That’s what happened this week — in Nebraska, of all places. The Nebraska legislature voted to abandon executions and instead sentence the worst offenders with life in prison without parole, a tough punishment that is far simpler and less expensive than the death penalty. The governor has promised to veto the bill, but the legislature will likely override that veto.
Do not write off Nebraska as an anomaly though. Organized conservative opposition the death penalty is growing. Many conservatives, including those in North Carolina, say capital punishment is just another costly, flawed government program.
The state’s conservative lawmakers cited a host of reasons before voting overwhelmingly to end the death penalty:
- The risk of executing the innocent
- Religious objections
- The arbitrary use of the death penalty
- The drawn-out process that causes pain to victims’ families
- Problems with lethal injection
Nebraska would be the seventh state since 2007 to officially repeal the death penalty. A majority of states, including North Carolina, have now abandoned the death penalty, whether in practice or in law.
Most of the death sentences in the U.S. are coming from just a tiny handful of counties.
One state at a time, our nation is accepting that the capital punishment system is not a fair or efficient response to crime, and that its costs far outweigh its benefits.
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