Death penal­ty devel­op­ments in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Wisconsin have recent­ly been fea­tured in the news:

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to con­sid­er the case of Abdur’Rahman v. Bredesen in which the Tennessee Supreme Court held that the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure is con­sti­tu­tion­al under the Eighth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court’s action is no reflec­tion of their opin­ion on the mat­ter of lethal injec­tion. The Justices are cur­rent­ly review­ing a sep­a­rate case that asks whether inmates can use a fed­er­al civ­il rights law to chal­lenge lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures. That case is sched­uled for deci­sion by the end of June. (Bloomberg News, May 22, 2006).

In South Carolina, law­mak­ers have aban­doned a leg­isla­tive pro­vi­sion that would have allowed the death penal­ty for sex offend­ers con­vict­ed a sec­ond time of assault­ing chil­dren younger than 11 years old. Legislators in the South Carolina House elim­i­nat­ed the pro­pos­al because it like­ly would have pre­vent­ed a broad­er sex offend­er bill from pass­ing through the leg­is­la­ture before the General Assembly adjourns on June 1. Opponents of the death penal­ty pro­vi­sion have said the state would face hefty legal bills to defend the law and that impos­ing the death penal­ty on this class of offend­ers would give them no incen­tive to spare their vic­tims’ lives. (Associated Press, May 21, 2006).

Wisconsin leg­is­la­tors have vot­ed to place an advi­so­ry ref­er­en­dum on the death penal­ty on the bal­lot this fall. Wisconsin vot­ers will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to voice their opin­ion on whether the death penal­ty should be enact­ed in the state for cas­es involv­ing a per­son who is con­vict­ed of first-degree inten­tion­al homi­cide and whose con­vic­tion is based on DNA evi­dence. The ref­er­en­dum is non-bind­ing. Wisconsin has not had the death penal­ty since 1853, but the state does allow the sen­tenc­ing option of life with­out parole. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 16, 2006).

See U.S. Supreme Court, Methods of Execution, and Recent Legislative Activities.

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