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USA - A Conservative against the death penalty
September 5, 2025: September 5, 2025 - USA. A Conservative against the death penalty
In an op-ed for The Black Chronicle, Demetrius Minor, executive director of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, argues that an uptick in executions in 2025 “represents the past more than the present as a remnant of our nation’s former affinity for capital punishment.” Mr. Minor’s opinion finds support in DPI’s recent mid year review, which notes that new death sentences in July were lower than they were at the same time in 2024. The better measures of where society currently stands on the death penalty, Mr. Minor says, are verdicts from capital juries. New death sentences are at near-record lows, including in conservative states.
In Oklahoma, it has been 3 years since a jury has issued a new death sentence. In Arkansas, it has been 6 years. In Kansas, it is 9 years. And in Indiana, it has been more than a decade without a jury rendering a verdict of death.
He attributes this change to several factors: declining public support for the death penalty, the availability of alternative sentences like life without parole, prosecutors pursuing death less often, and a public that is better informed about the possibility of wrongful convictions. “Innocence is a major issue for pro-life conservatives like me, which may help to explain some of the shift away from juries issuing death sentences in some of the reddest of states,” Mr. Minor writes.
He concludes by warning readers, “do not be fooled by headlines about the latest execution somewhere, the evidence is abundantly clear through the decisions of jurors nationwide that the death penalty in America is losing legitimacy, and that in the not too distant future, it may end.”
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/article-of-interest-head-of-conservatives-concerned-about-the-death-penalty-calls-execution-increase-a-false-indicator (Source: Death Penalty Information Center, 05/09/2025)
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