Virginia C onservatives C oncerned A bout the Death Penalty
Statement of Principles
Revised J une 17, 2015
Virginia Conservatives Concemed A bout the Death Penalty is a network of political conservatives
who question whether capital punishment is consistent with conservative principles and values.
We arrive at this conclusion for a variety of reasons:
“+ Some of us believe that small goverment and the death penalty are incompatible given the
high costs of capital punishment compared to life in prison without the possibility of release.
+ Some of us do not want to risk the execution of an innocent person by our imperfect criminal
justice system. We know that innocent people were sentenced to death and later exonerated.
+ Some of us are disturbed by the impact of the long process of mandatory death sentence
appeals on the family members of murder victims. A sentence of life in prison without parole
offers legal finality to murder victim family members far more quickly than capital punishment.
+ Some of us believe we should not continue to invest so much time and tax money into the death
penalty when there is no credible evidence that it keeps us safer than the alternative of life in
prison without parole.
+ Some of us believe that the death penalty violates our values on the sanctity of human life.
+» And for other reasons...
Death sentences are at an all-time low and public support for the death penalty has dropped in favor
of life in prison without parole. More and more conservatives are questioning the death penalty and
finding it to be inconsistent with conservative principles.
I agree with this statement and willing to be publicly identified as a supporter.
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