The StandDown Texas Project

Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty

Richard Viguerie's Conservative HQ blog posts, "Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty to Debut at CPAC."

Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a national network of conservatives questioning the alignment of capital punishment with conservative principles, will debut at CPAC (March 14-16).

Local conservative leaders from Montana, Kentucky, Texas, and Kansas will be in attendance. National figures Jay Sekulow and Richard A. Viguerie are also supporters of the group. 

"Conservatives should question how the death penalty actually works in order to stay true to small government, reduction in wasteful spending, and respect for human life," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.  

Roy Brown, former Montana House Majority Leader and a republican candidate for Montana governor in 2008, helped found Montana Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty several years ago. Brown was enthusiastic about expanding his grassroots effort, and will attend CPAC as part of the new national effort. 

And:

Richard A. Viguerie, known as the “Funding Father” of the conservative movement, also supports the new group. “Conservatives have every reason to believe the death penalty system is no different from any (other government programs) which we conservatives know are rife with injustice,” Viguerie said.

"Former State Senator Opposes Death Penalty," is the KULR-TV report by Christine Corrado.

In February the House Judiciary Committee shot down a measure to replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole. The "Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty" group led by former State Senator Roy Brown, will meet in Washington D.C. in March at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

"I am a conservative and I don't like to see waste and inefficiencies, I don't like to see the taxpayers money squandered on these long appeal processes and and so I'd like to see it end here," says Brown.

Brown hopes to persuade other conservatives to understand the advantages of abolishing the death penalty.

Earlier coverage from Montana begins at the link.  More at Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.

A Close Watch on Probationers

That's the title of an article in the Houston Chronicle reporting on special courts in adjacent Fort Bend County that provide heavy supervision of people serving probated sentences.  LINK

The people in front of Clark are on probation for various felonies and are appearing in Special Sanctions Court at the Fort Bend County courthouse. It is one of five relatively new special courts in the county providing close scrutiny of probationers for crimes ranging from misdemeanor DWI to aggravated robberies.

Those in the program agree to appear regularly before a judge as the court closely monitors their activities.

If they commit an infraction, the judge may send them to jail for a few days to serve as a wakeup call.

The goal is to help offenders complete probation instead of getting into the kind of trouble that could send them to pri- son.

Supporters of special courts say improving probation success could ease prison crowding and ultimately save taxpayer money.

Since the special sanctions court started two years ago, probation revocations in Fort Bend County have dropped by 12 percent.

Fort Bend officials say the courts are still in the pilot stage but are confident that — in addition to freeing up prison space — they will slash the number of people who fail probation and who sometimes commit more crimes.

Statewide, 55 percent of felony probation revocations are caused by technical violations of probation, not the commission of another felony, said Leighton Iles, director of the county's probation department.

Technical violations can include failing a drug test or not paying court fees or restitution.

Iles said the special sanctions court is designed to reduce technical violations and cut down probation revocations. Iles said that in the five years leading up to 2004, Fort Bend County averaged 211 probation revocations annually.

Lawmakers in the next regular Texas legislative session will debate whether to build additional prisons  or expand programs like the one in Fort Bend County.  More can be found here.