On February 18, the Montana House Judiciary Committee vot­ed (11 – 10) to advance HB 370, a bill to replace the death penal­ty with a max­i­mum sen­tence of life with­out parole. The same com­mit­tee had reject­ed sim­i­lar bills sev­er­al times in recent years. The bill will now move to the full House. Republican bill spon­sor Rep. David Moore (pic­tured) said he thought the bill had a decent chance of pass­ing in the House. Rep. Clayton Fiscus, one of two Republican mem­bers of the Judiciary Committee who sup­port­ed the bill, said, ​“Our death penal­ty is a joke.” He cit­ed the high cost of cap­i­tal tri­als and con­cerns about exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son as rea­sons for sup­port­ing abo­li­tion. Rep. Bruce Meyers, the oth­er Republican who vot­ed to advance the bill, said he was reli­gious­ly opposed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment: ​“That was part of my con­science, the way I was raised. Native Americans view all life as being sacred.” All 9 Democratic mem­bers of the com­mit­tee also vot­ed in favor of the bill.

(C. Johnson, ​“Panel backs abol­ish­ing death penal­ty,” Helena Independent Record, February 19, 2015). A sim­i­lar bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty in Washington failed in com­mit­tee. See Recent Legislative Activity and New Voices.

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