The Delaware House Republican Caucus recently posed a question to Facebook page asking whether the House Judiciary Committee should vote to release Senate Bill 19, which repeals the death penalty in Delaware and converts existing death sentences to life in prison without parole, for a vote on the floor by the full House.
Here is what the GOP House Caucus states and asks of its followers on Facebook:
Sixty percent of Americans favor the death penalty for convicted murderers, down from a peak of 80 percent that favored capital punishment in 1994. The results come from a recent Gallup poll. (See link to “ProCon” brief in the Comments section below.) A bill seeking to repeal Delaware’s death penalty is currently tabled in the House Judiciary Committee, after narrowly passing the Senate earlier this year. Should the committee vote to release the bill, allowing the measure to be considered by the full House? Or do you support the committee’s decision to table the bill and maintain the status quo?
As stated, the Senate has already passed the bill by a razor thin 11-10 margin, and in the House, there was both bipartisan support for and bipartisan opposition to the bill, leading to House Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Rebecca Walker to table the bill. But imagine that! Republicans possibly in favor of allowing votes on the floor on controversial bills. These Delaware House Republicans may have to teach their national counterparts a thing or two. And check out the comments to the Facebook post. Yes, some comments are from well known Delaware progressives, but there are others from Republicans, and all but one (that I saw) are in support of releasing the bill.
I suspect the motives of the GOP here are not pure. They are not going to release the bill (if they do and if they can) just because they are now in favor of the bill. No, this is not from the kindness of their heart. Instead, I think they think this will place the Democrats in a difficult bind, and may in fact split the party between Law and Order Democrats, who view supporting capital punishment like national Democrats viewed voting for the Iraq War: it is a means to look tough without actually being tough; and Progressive Democrats who think it is bad policy and they don’t care what they look like.
However, allowing a votes forces another intra-party divide into full view on the House floor: that of the Republicans. As evidenced by the Senate vote, some religious Republicans, who are honestly Christian and not just politically so, will vote to repeal, like Cathy Cloutier and Ernie Lopez did.