tnconservativesconcerned.org

  • About
  • Concerns
  • What Conservatives Are Saying
  • Resources
  • In The Media
  • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • Tennessee Leaders for a Better Justice System

TNCC Coordinator Jasmine Woodson With A Message To Conservatives about the Death Penalty

February 15, 2023 By Jasmine Woodson Leave a Comment

The Tennessean

Conservative lawmakers nationwide are re-thinking their positions on capital punishment because numerous problems that have come to light.

Last year, Republicans sponsored death penalty repeal bills in at least eight states including many so-called “red states” like ours, including Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Georgia, Utah, and Kansas.

In fact, GOP state lawmakers played a role in all of the most recent states to repeal capital punishment. Republicans supported or co-sponsored bills in Virginia in 2021, in Colorado in 2020, and in New Hampshire in 2019, where 40-percent of the Republican senate caucus voted to override their GOP governor’s veto.

Wrongful convictions, executions are main areas of concern

As a limited government conservative who thinks the government should have less power, not more, I can’t help but wonder why the state has been granted the power to take a life when our legal system has made so many mistakes. 

To date, 190 people have been freed from death rows across the country due to wrongful convictions. Here in Tennessee, three innocent people have been released from death row. Regardless of how one feels about the death penalty, it is distressing that the state makes so many mistakes and gets it wrong so often when a human life is on the line.

Evidence suggests that some innocent people have even been executed. How many innocent lives are we willing to sacrifice in this process? I am disturbed by our willingness to accept capital punishment in spite of all of it flaws. 

I am pro-life and believe that pro-life means whole life. The execution of even one innocent person is unacceptable.

Is the death penalty truly effective?

We can all agree that people who commit serious crimes should be held accountable for their actions. Most people also agree that factors such as one’s race, how much money one has for a lawyer, or the county one lives in should not influence this process. 

Shelby County is responsible for half of Tennessee’s death row and yet the crime rate there continues to climb, because executing people who are already incarcerated does not make us safer. Solving more crimes, providing mental health services, and helping vulnerable kids are much more effective policies for building safe communities.

As a fiscal conservative, I look at whether policies are fiscally sound. How much are we spending on Tennessee’s death penalty and what are we getting for it? Tennessee does not even track the full costs of the death penalty to taxpayers, but from the research that has been done, states like Tennessee spend millions more pursuing the death penalty than they would spend on alternative sentences like life without parole.

The death penalty does not provide truth in sentencing, and makes false promises to victims’ families. Fewer than 1 in 20 death sentences over the last 50 years have resulted in an execution. A death sentence is 12 times more likely to be reversed as a result of a court decision than it is to result in an execution. With the death penalty, surviving families of murder victims spend decades in a legal process that keeps them trapped in their trauma. Alternative sentences would provide legal finality much sooner, sometimes as soon as the trial is over.

This is not justice. It is a waste of public safety resources that could be reallocated to law enforcement training, better forensics to solve more crimes, crime prevention initiatives, or benefits for victims’ families.  

The closer I look at the death penalty, the more problems I see. The death penalty is a flawed policy that would be better left in the past. 

Jasmine Woodson serves as Tennessee Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (TNCC) Coordinator. Prior to coming to TNCC, Jasmine served as Assistant State Director and Recruiting Coordinator for the Blexit Foundation and as a lobbyist with For All Tennessee, where she advocated for criminal legal reform legislation at the local and state level.  

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: death penalty, death row, jasmine woodson, tennessee

Day on the Hill with Hannah Cox

April 28, 2021 By admin Leave a Comment

Our annual day on the hill went virtual this year! While we were disappointed to not meet with lawmakers in person, it did allow more people to join the conversation in 2021. We were also able to have Hannah Cox, the National Director of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty talk about what conservatives are saying across the country on this issue.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Emily Haas Lipscomb College Republicans, Past President

December 8, 2016 By admin Leave a Comment

Where I grew up in a rural town just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, Conservatives are loyal to their party the same way a Catholic is loyal to the church. My dad went to work at a steel mill everyday, my mom worked hard as a homemaker, and my sisters and I learned from our books. The three of us were brought up by our family’s convictions: Catholic, pro-life, small government, low taxes, Reagan worship, and pro-death penalty. And why wouldn’t we support the death penalty? The individuals convicted are individuals that have lost their right to be a part of greater humanity because of their heinous crimes, right?

As an undergraduate student at Lipscomb University studying history and philosophy, to which I fell madly in love, I had opportunities to explore my convictions related to faith, policy, and the human experience. After being elected the College Republican President for the university, I had the opportunity to meet with individuals like Marc Hyden, who represents Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. Marc, and the presentation that he delivered to a joint gathering with the College Republicans and the history department, introduced new ways of thinking about the death penalty, how it is administered, and why it is used how it is. The opinions my family impressed upon my sisters and me could not withstand the facts. The institution of death over a citizenry never sounded right to me, but now I had the evidence to back up my concerns and the confidence to dive deeper into the subject.

As a student in Lipscomb University’s first Leadership and Public Policy masters class, I am thrilled now to take action. The death penalty is misplaced as a political issue. The state of Tennessee, as well as the United States of America as a whole, has a responsibility to itself and to the rest of the world to lead through positive action; this is also referred to as soft power. We are all humans in community in this world, and it is our civic duty to do all we can to see the humanity in each and every individual. Not only does the death penalty fail to do so, but it also fails to make us safer, to prevent crime, and to ensure that innocent people aren’t executed. During the next year as I work with TADP, I will work to transform the criminal justice system into a system that better serves all people, including victims, defendant, and their communities.

Our political views and understanding of government may be different, but we can all see how the death penalty is failing and join together to work for change.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Amy Lawrence, TNCC Coordinator

December 2, 2016 By admin Leave a Comment

We’re starting a blog post!

But first, let me introduce myself. I am the coordinator for Tennessee Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. I started working for this project in August 2015. Since starting with the organization, I have met other conservatives who also struggle with the subject of the death penalty. Some part, or maybe all of it, clashes with their personal views. What I have realized is not every opponent of the death penalty is the same. Yes, some oppose it on a religious or moral level. But, others oppose it because they believe the system is, frankly, a waste of taxpayer dollars. They may have no moral qualms about the death penalty.

Throughout the year, I will be asking folks to write a guest entry about their personal story or thoughts on the subject. What facets of the death penalty they care about, and how they came to hold the position they do. These will be the personal opinions of the writer and not necessarily of the group itself.  I’ll also be asking colleagues from different states to give us an update on the work they have been doing as well.

If you have your own story you’d like to share, please email me at amy@tennesseedeathpenalty.org.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Sign Up

    Get occasional updates from us

    Your Email

    [recaptcha]

    Members of the media

    For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Jasmine Woodson at jasmine@tennesseedeathpenalty.org or by calling (615) 648-4769.

    Connect with us:

    • Facebook
    • Twitter

    Copyright © 2015 A project of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty • Designed by MP&F