Group of young conservatives, including SEMO student, push for end of Missouri death penalty

Legislative efforts to repeal the death penalty have drawn the support of college conservatives across the state, including Daniel Blassi, president of Students for Life at Southeast Missouri State University.

Blassi recently joined Missouri Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a group that supports Missouri Senate Bill 816 that would repeal the death penalty.

Blassi said his opposition to the death penalty aligns with his pro-life views and concern about the risk that wrongly convicted people would be executed.

“We may aim to execute only the guilty, but in practice, the death penalty puts too many innocent lives at risk,” he said.

The Southeast student from St. Louis said he believes young adults in Missouri are increasingly speaking out for repeal of the death sentence.

“I can see it being a trend,” he said.

On Tuesday, a hearing was held at the state Capitol in Jefferson City on the bill, sponsored by Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial, that would end the death penalty in the Missouri.

The legislation would eliminate the death sentence for first-degree murder. In addition, the act would spare the lives of those on death row. It provides that any person sentenced to death before Aug. 28, when the law would take effect, would be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Senate bill mirrors state House legislation co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Kathy Swan of Cape Girardeau. Like Blassi, Swan opposes the death penalty on pro-life grounds.

Josh Schisler, a spokesman for the Missouri Conservatives group, said Tuesday’s hearing marked the first time in decades a Senate committee held a hearing on a Republican bill to repeal the death penalty.

Schisler said the death penalty is at odds with the core conservative values of fiscal responsibility, limited government and value for life.

“Since last year’s near-execution of a Missouri death-row inmate whose sentence was commuted after the state’s key witness recanted his testimony, a growing number of conservatives have questioned whether the government can effectively carry out capital punishment,” Schisler said.

The Missouri Conservatives group said on its website “capital punishment is an inefficient, bloated program that has bogged down law enforcement, delayed justice for victims’ families and devoured millions of crime-fighting resources that could save lives and protect the public.”

The group said defending a single death-penalty case costs Missouri taxpayers about $100,000 more than defending a case of life without parole.

But Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh said as a prosecutor he doesn’t look at the cost.

“I focus on justice. The dollars-and-cents argument is not something I would consider off the bat,” Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh said he supports the death penalty, believing it helps deter crime. He cited a case in Cape Girardeau County where a man abducted and sexually abused a 4-year-old girl over a period of several days. When he finally was caught, he told authorities he thought about killing the girl but decided against it because Missouri has the death penalty.

Limbaugh said the death penalty should be used only in cases involving the most heinous crimes. Those who commit such crimes could end up killing a fellow inmate or a prison guard. Executing such people eliminates that risk, he said.

“Seeking the death penalty is never something that should be taken lightly,” the prosecutor said. A good prosecutor should consider all the evidence, including evidence that might exonerate a defendant, he said.

“Vengeance does not have a role to play in the criminal justice system,” Limbaugh maintained.

Jennifer Bukowsky, a Republican attorney who takes on pro bono cases for Missourians imprisoned for murder despite innocence claims, disagrees with Limbaugh. She said on the Missouri Conservatives’ website “the government is incompetent at just about everything. So how can we trust them to kill the right people and to do it in the right way?”

Schisler said Missouri jurors have not imposed a death sentence since 2013. Last year marked the first time in 24 years fewer than 30 executions were carried out in the United States. It was the 12th time in the last 16 years the number of executions in this country has declined, he said. A total of 28 prisoners were executed in 2015.

But he noted there still are 27 people, all men, on death row in Missouri, The list includes Russell Bucklew, convicted in a Cape Girardeau County murder case.

Beverly Jaynes, an inmate in the state prison at Vandalia, Missouri, recently wrote a letter to the Southeast Missourian, arguing for repeal of the death penalty.

She asked, “Why do Missourians so highly esteem state-sanctioned vengeances at any cost and so strongly strive to end a life, a life that might otherwise find redemption and be transformed?”

According to the Death Penalty Information Center website, six states carried out executions last year, the fewest since 1988. Texas, Missouri and Georgia accounted for 86 percent of the executions. Texas executed 13 people; Missouri, six; and Georgia, five.

Since 1973, 156 people on death row nationwide have been exonerated.

The Missouri Conservatives’ Schisler believes public sentiment is growing in Missouri to repeal the death penalty.

“It is only a matter of time until we get rid of the death penalty,” he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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