South Dakota state Senator Arthur Rusch (R‑Vermillion, pic­tured), a for­mer tri­al court judge who presided over a cap­i­tal tri­al in which a defen­dant was sen­tenced to death, said he will be intro­duc­ing leg­is­la­tion next year to repeal the state’s death penal­ty. Rusch said he sup­ports repeal because of the emo­tion­al toll of cap­i­tal tri­als on juri­ors and because of the finan­cial impact of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. As a for­mer Lincoln County cir­cuit court judge, Rusch presided over the 1997 tri­al of Donald Moeller, and saw first­hand the anguish jurors expe­ri­enced when they sen­tenced Moeller to death. Because of that expe­ri­ence, he said, ​“I think I’m more knowl­edge­able about the emo­tion­al toll. It’s real­ly hard on peo­ple hav­ing to make that deci­sion.” On the issue of cost, he said, ​“I know there’s this reac­tion that keep­ing peo­ple in jail for many, many years is expen­sive, but it’s nowhere near as expen­sive as the court costs.” Death penal­ty abo­li­tion bills have pre­vi­ous­ly failed in com­mit­tee in South Dakota, but Senator Bernie Hunhoff (D‑Yankton) said that the sup­port of Republicans like Rusch could change that and allow the state to fol­low in the foot­steps of neigh­bor­ing Nebraska. ​“You can see that grad­ual trans­for­ma­tion in Nebraska, and you’re see­ing that very same thing here,” said Sen. Hunhoff, who has spon­sored past repeal bills in South Dakota. South Dakota has three peo­ple on death row, and has exe­cut­ed three peo­ple since 1976.

(D. Ferguson, ​“Death penal­ty repeal bill pro­pelled by Nebraska mea­sure,” Argus Leader, December 10, 2015.) See Recent Legislative Activity and New Voices.

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