Friday, March 08, 2019

Conservatives & The Death Penalty

Conservatives & The Death Penalty:
Another Rebuttal of Their Anti-Death Penalty Position
Dishonesty or Willful Ignorance?
Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV included

 sent 1/19/2018

 To: Representative Steve Handy

 cc: Governor Gary Herbert and staff
Utah House, Senate and staff
Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee
Attorney General Sean Reyes and staff
Utah Prosecution Council
Utah Sheriffs' Association
Utah Appellate Courts
Libertas Institute - Utah
Students For Liberty
Young Americans for Liberty

 Media throughout Utah

 From: Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom

 Dear Rep. Handy:

 I hope, this time, you will fact check.

 Here is a rebuttal, below, to (one of many) conservatives who refuses to fact check.

 In a message dated 12/14/2017 1:08:57 PM Central Standard Time, sharpjfa@aol.com writes:

 To: Richard Viguerie (c/0 http://www.conservativehq.com/Contact)

 bcc: All editors and commentary writers, Washington Times

 copied to Oliver North, Jay Sekulow, Ron Paul, Michael Steele, Ramesh Ponnuru

 Re:  "Republicans reconsidering the death penalty", Richard Viguerie, Washington Times, December 13, 2017

 From: Dudley Sharp. death penalty expert, former opponent

 I fully rebutted all of Viguerie's anti-death penalty points in 2009 (1). I send him my rebuttal. He did not respond. He couldn't.

 ======
August 20, 2019

Full Rebuttal of Hannah Cox, National Manager,
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCADP),
within Comment Section
======

 To repeat, with his present op/ed, many points of which are the same, as in 2009:

 1) Why conservative support for the death penalty has dropped.

 Viguerie:" . . . what caused this drop in conservative support in the first place? His answer: " . . .  an ongoing educational campaign to inform conservatives of the death penalty’s many practical failures."

 Sharp rebuttal: It is a misinformation campaign, which duplicates the liberal anti- death penalty claims, which have been rebutted for years (1,2).

 Viguerie, for example, extols the efforts of the Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCADP), a group owned and controlled by a very well known liberal anti-death penalty group, Equal Justice USA, which counts as its financial supporters many liberal groups, inclusive of George Soros (fn 1 from 1), all detailed for Viguerie in 2009 (fn 1 from 1).

 Here is a review of all of Viguerie's education points, which he claims are reasons to do away with the death penalty.

 2) limited government

 Sharp Rebuttal: Death row represents 0.04% of the criminals, currently, within the criminal justice system. Possibly, death row is the smallest of all government components.

 3) Costs

 Sharp Rebuttal:  There appears to be three or more states where the death penalty saves money over life without parole (LWOP) (3).  In those states where the death penalty might be more expensive than LWOP, that is not the fault of the death penalty, but of management (4).  Fix them.

 For example, Virginia has executed 112 murderers, since 1976, within 7 years of appeals, on average (3). All states would save money over LWOP, if they don't already, by duplicating that protocol. If Virginia can do it, all states can.

 Death row is a small component, of the total corrections cost, within each state.

 4) Catholics

 Sharp Rebuttal to Viguerie's points.

 The Catholic Church has supported the death penalty for over 2000 years (5).

 Some in the Church, as with Viguerie, have accepted a confusion, since 1995, that justice is no longer primary, which, clearly, is contrary to Church teachings, for 2000 years, through today (5,6).

 In addition, the new teachings, 1995 forward, are based upon the secular confidence in criminal justice systems, which as you might notice, Viguerie has no confidence in any government programs, with some in the Church saying, because criminal justice systems have the means to protect us from unjust aggressors, without using the death penalty, that we should chose less severe sanctions.

What Viguerie and the Church should know is that such is, in fact, not the reality of the situation.

Innocents are much better protected when we use the death penalty/executions (7) and the reality of the criminal justice system is that it allows criminals to harm, over and over, again (7, 8).

For some odd reason the Church and Viguerie are willing to sacrifice more innocents, to make sure that all murderers live.

5) Support for the death penalty is at a 45-year low, some surveys showing that a clear majority prefers repealing and replacing the death penalty

Sharp Rebuttal: I have not seen the polls that show "a clear majority prefers repealing and replacing the death penalty".  I suspect Viguerie has not, either. California, the bluest of blue states, just voted, by popular referendum, to keep the death penalty and to speed up appeals.

A primary problem with the polling is that the media will only chose to show those polls that they like, which, usually means the ones with the lowest support (9).

For example,

---  there was a 2013 poll showing 86% death penalty support in the US (9). Not one media source carried it, even though it was by Angus Reid, the #1 most accurate pollster in the 2012 presidential election (9).

----  every year Gallup comes out with their death penalty poll, the media only picks up the lowest support numbers from Gallup, even though, almost every year, there is another poll result, within that same Gallup release, that has about 10% higher death penalty support (9).

I, strongly, suspect other topics of polls are handled, similarly, by the media.

We all know that the questions asked and the answers provided, by the polling companies, direct the outcome.  With the death penalty, those variables can provided 10-40% swings (9).

6) Mistakes

Sharp Rebuttal: Since 1976, after Gregg v Georgia, the case that approved new death penalty statutes,  there have been about 0.4% of death row inmates proven to be actually innocent and released from death row, which equals a 99.6% accuracy rate for actually guilty convictions and a 100% rate of freeing the actually innocent, very likely, the most accurate government program.

The current anti death penalty claims of 160 "exonerated" from death row, have been a well known deception, at least since 1996, when the number was 69, Anti death penalty folks have, simply, redefined both "innocent" and "exonerated" and then stuffed a bunch of cases into those perverted definitions. Their claims are 70-83% false, depending upon review, as detailed (10).

There is no known innocents executed since 1913 (date changed), if then.

We can speculate, but then we can also speculate that these number may be higher:

Since 1973:

16,000 innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN murderers that we have allowed to murder, again - recidivist murderers and
400,000 innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN criminals that we have allowed to harm, again - recidivist criminals (7,8).

Viguerie, where do you think the mistakes are? This goes to the #1 concern for the anti death penalty movement - it is imperative that all murderers must live, no matter the cost.

7) "far too often botch these executions — something the public clearly has no appetite for."

Sharp Rebuttal:  Possibly, about 1% of lethal injections have been botched - a pretty good record. The claim that 7% are botched is, simply, false, as fact checking proves (11).

Mr. Viguerie is voicing the willful ignorance of conservatives, not their concerns.


1)  Rebuttal to Richard A. Viguerie
Dudley Sharp, 7/09
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/rebuttal-to-richard-vigueries-when.html

2) The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-death-penalty-justice-saving-more.html


4)  Judges Responsible For Grossly Uneven Executions
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/judges-responsible-for-grossly-uneven.html

and

Judges as Jackasses

5)  By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment, 2017, Edward Feser and Joseph M. Bessette, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, $24.95). Visit ignatius.com or call 1-800-651-1531. ''

6)   Critical Dismay:  The Catholic Church's Latest (2018)Death Penalty Catechism Amendment (added 3/19)
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2019/02/critical-dismay-catholic-churchs-latest.html

 Catholic Church: Problems with Her Newest Death Penalty Position:
The Catechism & Section 2267     


8)  Catechism and State Protection

9)  86% Death Penalty Support: Highest Ever - April 2013
World Support Remains High
95% of Murder Victim's Family Members Support Death Penalty
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/86-death-penalty-support-highest-ever.html

10)  The Innocent Frauds: Standard Anti Death Penalty Strategy
READ SECTIONS 3&4 FIRST
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-innocent-frauds-standard-anti-death.html



Partial CV, Dudley Sharp



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