Here are what some conservative leaders are saying about the death penalty:

“Conservatives have every reason to believe the death penalty system is no different from any politicized, costly, inefficient, bureaucratic, government-run operation, which we conservatives know are rife with injustice. But here the end result is the end of someone’s life. In other words, it’s a government system that kills people.”

Richard Viguerie

“I’m opposed to the death penalty not because I think it’s unconstitutional per se—although I think it’s been applied in ways that are unconstitutional—but it really is a moral view, and that is that the taking of life is not the way to handle even the most significant of crimes…Who amongst anyone is not above redemption? I think we have to be careful in executing final judgment.  The one thing my faith teaches me—I don’t get to play God.  I think you are short-cutting the whole process of redemption…I don’t want to be the person that stops that process from taking place”

Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice

“I believe that support for the death penalty is inconsistent with libertarianism and traditional conservatism. So I am pleased with Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty’s efforts to form a coalition of libertarians and conservatives to work to end capital punishment.”

Dr. Ron Paul, former Congressman and GOP Presidential candidate

“On the core issue — yes or no on capital punishment — I’m with the opponents. Better to err on the side of not taking life. The teaching of the Catholic Church, to which I belong, seems right to me: The state has the legitimate authority to execute criminals, but it should refrain if it has other means of protecting people from them. Our government almost always does.”

Ramesh Ponnuru, Senior Editor for National Review and Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

“…after having my eyes opened to systemic corruption of our criminal (in)justice system at the hands of bad detectives, incompetent PD crime labs & out-of-control prosecutors, I no longer support the death penalty.”

Michelle Malkin, Conservative blogger, political commentator, and author

“I used to support the death penalty, but I oppose it now. It gives the state too much power, it actually cost more money than life in prison without parole, and the government sometimes sentences innocent people to death. There are hundreds of people in the U.S. that have been wrongfully convicted and eventually released after serving time on death row. Others have still been executed after evidence was introduced that strongly supports their innocence. If the government kills someone and later finds out they were innocent, there’s not much you can do.”

Julie Borowski, Political Blogger and Editor of Julieborowski.com

“The death penalty is too perilous to risk to human error.”

Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel to the Federal Communications Commission under President Ronald Reagan