Below are important pieces of death penalty legislation that have recently passed or are currently being considered. (DPIC welcomes additions and suggestions.)

(Left: A board displays the vote totals in the Virginia Senate, which passed a bill to abolish the death penalty by a 21-17 vote on February 4, 2021.)

2021 - Proposed legislation
States with bills to abolish death penalty indicated with *
Session dates via StateScape

ALABAMA* (Session dates: 02/02/2021 - 05/31/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 544	Would repeal the death penalty	Read for the first time on March 16, 2021 and referred to Committee on Judiciary

ARKANSAS (Session dates: 01/11/2021 - 04/24/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 28	Would make rape of a child a capital offense	Filed December 31, 2020, referred to Judiciary Committee. WITHDRAWN by the author, March 17, 2021.
SB 29	Would make trafficking of fentanyl a capital offense	Filed December 31, 2020, referred to Judiciary Committee.
SB 284	Would create the crime of “capital rape,” making the rape of someone under age 14 punishable by death. This law would violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision Kennedy v. Louisiana, which barred the death penalty for crimes against an individual in which the victim did not die.	Filed February 3, 2021, referred to Judiciary Committee.
HB 1731	Would amend sentencing procedure in the case of a mistrial in the sentencing phase of a capital trial to allow the prosecutor to request that the judge impose a sentence of life without parole or impanel a new sentencing jury.	Filed March 15, 2021. PASSED the House by a vote of 96-0, with 4 abstentions, on March 23.

ARIZONA* (Session dates: 01/11/2021 - 05/28/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 1548	Would change capital sentencing law to state that a trier of fact “may” impose a death sentence if they find aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors, instead of saying they “shall” impose a death sentence	Introduced February 1, 2021. Referred to Rules and Judiciary Committees.
SB 1695/HCR 2039	Would repeal the death penalty	SB 1695 introduced February 3, 2021. Referred to Rules and Judiciary Committees. HCR 2039 introduced February 9, 2021 and referred to Judiciary and Rules Committees.
SB 1696	Would prohibit the death penalty for defendants with serious mental illness	Introduced February 1, 2021. Referred to Rules and Judiciary Committees.

CALIFORNIA* (Session dates: 12/07/2020 - 11/30/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
ACA 2	Would amend the California constitution to prohibit the death penalty from being imposed as a punishment for any violations of law.	Read first time December 7, 2020.
AB 1224	Would allow a judge to dismiss a finding of a “special circumstance.” Under current law, if certain special circumstances are found in a first degree murder case, the defendant must be sentenced to death.	Introduced February 19, 2021.
SB 300	Would repeal a provision requiring punishment by death or imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole for a person convicted of murder in the first degree who is not the actual killer, but acted with reckless indifference for human life as a major participant in certain specified violent felonies. Would also allow prisoners sentenced under that provision to petition for a resentencing. Would allow judges to strike special circumstances.	Introduced February 3, 2021. Hearing scheduled for April 6.

CONNECTICUT (Session dates: 01/06/2021 - 06/03/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 5370/SB 322	Would reinstate the death penalty.	Referred to Joint Committee on Judiciary.

FLORIDA* (Session dates: 01/04/2021 - 04/23/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 568/HB 6019	Would abolish the death penalty.	SB 568 filed January 12, 2021 and referred to Committees on Criminal Justice, Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice, and Appropriations. HB 6019 filed January 11, 2021 and referred to Judiciary Committee, Criminal Justice & Public Safety Subcommittee and Justice Appropriations Subcommittee.
SB 1156	Would prohibit the death penalty for defendants with severe mental illness	Filed February 9, 2021. Referred to the Senate Criminal Justice, Judiciary, and Rules Committees. PASSED the Senate Criminal Justice Committee by a vote of 8-0 on March 30 and moved to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

GEORGIA* (Session dates: 01/11/2021 - 04/23022021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 485	Would repeal the death penalty	Introduced February 17, 2021

ILLINOIS (Session dates: 01/13/2021 - 01/11/2023)

Bill number

Bill Description

Status

HB 3627/SB 614/SB 2219

Would reinstate the death penalty

HB 3627 filed February 19, 2021, referred to Rules Committee.

SB 614 filed February 24, 2021, referred to Assignments Committee.

SB 2219 filed February 26, 2021, referred to Assignments Committee.

INDIANA (Session dates: 01/04/2021 - 04/23/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 1165	Would make murder committed by a law enforcement officer acting within the scope of the officer’s duty an aggravating circumstance permitting imposition of the death penalty.	First reading and referred to Committee on Courts and Criminal Code, January 7, 2021
SB 252	Would provide that a person may not be sentenced to death unless: (1) the victim is a specified public safety officer and certain other circumstances apply; or (2) the person commits murder against two or more victims, and would reduce death sentences to life without parole for those sentenced to death for other crimes	First reading and referred to Committee on Judiciary, January 11, 2021. PASSED committee by a vote of 8-0 on February 4.

IOWA (Session dates: 01/11/2021 - 05/31/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SF 82/SSB 1004/HF 271	Would reinstate the death penalty for murder in the first degree involving kidnapping and sexual abuse offenses against the same victim who is a minor	Introduced January 14, 2021 and referred to Judiciary Committee. Failed to make it out of committee by deadline for passage.
SF 534, as amended by H-1306	The amendment would reinstate the death penalty for the murder of a “correctional officer, public employee, or hostage while the person is imprisoned in a correction institution under the jurisdiction of the Iowa Department of Corrections, or in a city or county jail … or a peace officer who is on duty, under any circumstances, with knowledge that the person killed is a peace officer.”	Amendment filed in the House Committee on Public Safety on March 25, 2021 after SF 534, passed the Senate on March 10, 2021. No hearing has been scheduled.

KANSAS* (Session dates: 01/11/2021 - 05/27/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 136	Would abolish the death penalty	Introduced February 3, 2021 and referred to Judiciary Committee
HB 2300	Would abolish the death penalty for crimes committed after July 1, 2021	Introduced February 9, 2021 and referred to Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice

KENTUCKY* (Session dates: 01/05/2021 - 03/31/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 60	Would abolish the death penalty and resentence current death-row prisoners to life without parole	Introduced January 5, 2021
HB 148	Would prohibit the death penalty for defendants with serious mental illness	Introduced January 5, 2021. PASSED the House by a vote of 75-16 on March 1. Reported favorably out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 4.

MISSOURI* (Session dates: 01/06/2021 - 05/30/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 50/HB 127	Would abolish the death penalty and resentence death-row prisoners to life without parole.	Prefiled December 1, 2020
HB 157	Would create the Change of Venue for Capital Cases Fund to reimburse a county that receives a capital case from another county for costs associated with the sequestering of jurors	Prefiled December 1, 2020
HB 278	Would prohibit the death penalty for defendants with serious mental illness	Prefiled December 1, 2020. Read first time January 6, 2021.
HB 462	Would require that a life sentence be imposed if the sentencing jury does not unanimously agree to a death sentence, repealing a provision that treated a non-unanimous vote as a hung jury and allowed the trial judge to determine the sentence.	Prefiled December 14, 2021. Read first time January 6, 2021.
HB 676	Would modify the aggravating factors that make a crime death eligible to add the phrase “regardless of whether the victim was previously identified” to the aggravator “The murder in the first degree offense was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission or attempted commission of another unlawful homicide”	Prefiled January 5, 2021. Referred to Judiciary Committee. PASSED Judiciary Committee by a vote of 11-1 on March 4. Referred to the Consent and House Procedure Committee. PASSED Consent and House Procedure Committee by a 9-0 vote on March 9.
HB 1201	Would require judges to impose a sentence of life without parole if the jury does not unanimously vote for death.	Introduced February 19, 2021.

MONTANA* (Session dates: 01/04/2021 - 04/28/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 244	Would change the lethal-injection law to allow execution by “an intravenous substance…sufficient to cause death.” Under current law, Montana may only use an ultra-fast-acting barbiturate in combination with a paralytic	Introduced January 26, 2021, referred to Judiciary Committee. Hearing was held February 3. passed the Judiciary Committee February 12 by a vote of 11-8. Passed the full House on second reading February 16 by a vote of 56-44 and was re-referred to the Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations Committee conducted a hearing on February 17 and passed the bill by a vote of 17-7 on February 24. The bill received FINAL PASSAGE in the House on February 25 by a 56-42 vote. Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 26, which conducted a hearing on March 30 and voted 6-5 on April 1 to pass the bill. The bill was DEFEATED on second reading before the full Senate by.a vote of 24-26 on April 15 and further consideration was indefinitely postponed by a vote of 30-20, effectively killing the bill.
HB 335	Would abolish the death penalty and replace it with life without possibility of parole	Introduced February 8, 2021. Referred to Judiciary Committee February 9. Hearing was held February 23 and the bill was TABLED by a vote of 11-8.

NEVADA* (Session dates: 02/01/2021 - 06/01/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 228/AB 395	Would abolish the death penalty	SB 228 introduced on March 15, 2021 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. AB 395 read first time on March 24, 2021 and referred to Committee on Judiciary. Judiciary Committee recommended passage on April 9. PASSED the Assembly by a vote of 26-16 on April 13.

NEW YORK (Session dates: 01/06/2021 - 01/01/2023)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
AB 3741	Would reinstate the death penalty	Referred to Codes on January 28, 2021

OHIO* (Session dates: 01/04/2021 - 12/31/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 103/HB 183	Would abolish the death penalty	SB 103 introduced March 2, 2021 and referred to Judiciary Committee. HB 183 introduced March 4, 2021 and referred to Government Oversight Committee.

OKLAHOMA (Session dates: 02/01/2021 - 05/29/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 1551	Would create a Conviction Integrity Review Unit within the Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Parole to review capital cases in which the defendant has presented a plausible claim of actual innocence (Bill substituted)	Conviction Integrity Review Unit bill substituted for prior version of HB 1551 and approved by the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee on March 9, 2021.
HB 2219	Would require all Oklahoma district attorney’s offices and the Office of the Attorney General to allow open-file discovery at all stages of a capital case	First reading February 1, 2021, referred to House Judiciary Committee.
HB 2220	Would create a Prosecutorial Disclosure Review Panel to review prosecution files and prosecutor conduct in death penalty cases	First reading February 1, 2021, referred to House Judiciary Committee.

SOUTH CAROLINA* (Session dates: 01/12/2021 - 06/15/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
S 52	Would abolish the death penalty	Prefiled and referred to Committee on Judiciary, December 9, 2020
S 200/H 3755	Would make electrocution the default method of execution, add firing squad as an option for the method of execution, and alter the process by which prisoners may elect lethal injection as their method of execution	S 200 prefiled and referred to Committee on Corrections and Penology, December 9, 2020. PASSED committee by 11-6 vote on February 2. PASSED the full Senate by a vote of 32–11 on March 3. H 3755 introduced and referred to Committee on Judiciary, January 27, 2021. PASSED committee by a 14-7 vote on February 23.

SOUTH DAKOTA (Session dates: 01/12/2021 - 03/29/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 98	Would restrict the death penalty to first-degree murder of a police officer, corrections officer, or firefighter	First read and referred to Judiciary Committee, January 25, 2021. PASSED the Judiciary Committee 5-1 on February 4. FAILED in the Senate by a 13-20 vote on February 8.

TENNESSEE (Session dates: 01/12/2021 - 05/07/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 1/SB 1236	Would allow a defendant who has been sentenced to the death penalty and whose conviction is final to petition the trial court for a determination of whether the defendant is ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual disability. Defines intellectual disability as “significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, including many everyday social and practical skills; and … [t]hat originated prior to the person’s eighteenth birthday.”	Filed for introduction November 4, 2020 and introduced on January 12, 2021. Referred to the House Criminal Justice Committee on January 13 and assigned to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee January 27. Filed for introduction and introduced on February 11, 2021. Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee February 22.
HB 1026/SB 1349	Would allow a defendant who has previously been sentenced to death penalty and whose conviction is final to petition the trial court for a determination of whether the defendant ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual disability. Would conform the definition of intellectual disability to the diagnostic criteria contained “in the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association.”	House bill 1026 filed for introduction February 10, 2021, introduced February 11, and referred to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the House Criminal Justice Committee on February 22. Recommended for passage by a voice vote of the subcommittee on April 7. Passed the Criminal Justice Committee by a voice vote on April 14. Senate bill 1349 filed for introduction and introduced February 11, 2021 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 22. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee calendar by a vote of 7-1 on April 14 [Note, legislative website erroneously says 4/13.]
HB 47/SB 226	Would make a defendant convicted of first degree murder eligible for the death penalty if the victim was a Good Samaritan helping, protecting, or providing emergency care to a person and the defendant knew the victim was acting as a Good Samaritan.	House bill filed for introduction December 16, 2020, introduced January 12, 2021, and referred to House Criminal Justice Committee on January 13. Assigned to Criminal Justice Subcommittee January 27 and recommended for passage February 24. Recommended for passage by the Criminal Justice Committee on March 3. PASSED the House by a vote of 84-0 on March 15. Senate bill filed January 19, 2021 and referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on February 10. Recommended for passage by the committee by a vote of 7-2 on March 30. The Senate moved to substitute SB 226 with HB 47 and PASSED the House bill by a vote of 26-6 on April 8.

TEXAS* (Session dates: 01/12/2021 - 05/28/2021)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HB 77	Would disallow the death penalty in cases relying only on the testimony of a single eyewitness	Filed November 9, 2020
HB 140	Would prohibit the death penalty for defendants with serious mental illness	Filed November 9, 2020
HB 215/HB 354/SB 188	Would abolish the death penalty	House bills filed November 9, 2020, Senate bill filed November 13, 2020.
HB 252/SB 189	Would require jury unanimity in certain sentencing decisions that currently only require agreement among 10 jurors	House bill filed November 9, 2020, Senate bill filed November 13, 2020
HB 679	Would alter the standards for counsel in capital cases	Filed November 30, 2020
HB 838/HB 1340	Would repeal Texas’ “law of parties” in capital cases, removing death eligibility for minor participants in capital crimes	HB 838 filed December 15, 2020, referred to Criminal Jurisprudence committee. HB 1340 filed January 25, 2021, referred to Criminal Jurisprudence committee. Scheduled for public hearing April 6, 2021.
HB 841/SB 685	Would allow clemency hearings to be conducted by telephone or videoconference	Filed December 15, 2020
HB 869/SB 80	Would update the procedure for determining intellectual disability in capital cases	Filed December 17, 2020
HB 380	Would add a new aggravating circumstance making a crime eligible for the death penalty: if the victim was murdered in retaliation for their work as a prosecuting attorney or an assistant prosecuting attorney	Filed November 9, 2020, referred to Criminal Jurisprudence committee
HB 688	Would make the “law of parties” inapplicable to capital prosecutions	Filed December 1, 2020, referred to Criminal Jurisprudence committee. Public hearing scheduled April 6, 2021.
HB 1355/SB 831/HB 3194	Would allow a prisoner’s spiritual advisor to accompany them in the execution chamber	HB 1355 filed January 26, 2021, referred to Corrections committee. SB 831 filed February 26, referred to Criminal Justice committee. HB 3194 filed March 8, referred to Corrections committee.
HB 2386	Would make the identity of lethal-injection drug suppliers public information	Filed February 26, 2021, referred to Corrections committee. Public hearing held March 24. Left pending in committee.
HB 4271	Would ban law school clinics from representing death-row prisoners on appeal	Filed March 12, 2021, referred to Higher Education committee.
HB 4308/SB 2034	Would create a process for capital defendants or death-row prisoners to bring claims of racial bias pretrial or on appeal	Filed March 12, 2021, referred to Criminal Jurisprudence committee.
SB 2113	Would permit the views of the victims’ family members to be considered in the sentencing phase of a capital trial, whether they support the death penalty or life without parole	Filed March 12, 2021, referred to Criminal Justice committee.
HJR 4	Proposes a constitutional amendment denying bail to anyone accused of capital murder	Filed March 10, 2021, referred to Criminal Jurisprudence committee. Scheduled for public hearing April 6.

VIRGINIA* (Session dates: 01/13/2021 - 02/13/2021)

Bill number

Bill Description

Status

HB 1779/SB 1165/HB 2263

Would abolish the death penalty and resentence current death-row prisoners to life without parole

House bill 1779 prefiled and referred to Committee for Courts of Justice, December 29, 2020. House bill 2263 introduced January 13, 2021. HB 1779 was incorporated into HB 2263. Subcommittee on Criminal Courts recommended reporting by a 6-2 vote on January 29, 2021. PASSED Committee on Courts of Justice by a 15-6 vote on February 3. PASSED the House by a vote of 57-41 on February 5.

Senate bill 1165 prefiled and referred to Committee on the Judiciary, January 8, 2021. PASSED the Committee on the Judiciary on January 18 by a 10-4 vote. Rereferred to the Committee on Finance and Appropriations. PASSED the Committee on Finance and Appropriations by a 12-4 vote on January 26. PASSED the Senate by a vote of 21-17 on February 3.

The Senate PASSED the House bill by a 22-16 vote and the House PASSED the Senate bill by a 57-43 vote on February 22.

SIGNED into law by Governor Ralph Northam on March 24.

WASHINGTON* (Session dates: 01/11/2021 - 04/30/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SB 5047	Would remove the death penalty from Washington’s laws, bringing it in line with the 2018 Washington Supreme Court ruling striking down the death penalty.	Prefiled December 31, 2020. First reading January 11, 2021, referred to Committee on Law & Justice.
SB 5099	Would reinstate the death penalty for people who commit murder while incarcerated.	Prefiled January 7, 2021. First reading January 11, 2021, referred to Committee on Law & Justice.

WYOMING* (Session dates: 01/12/2021 - 04/02/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
SF 150	Would repeal Wyoming’s death penalty.	Introduced March 1, 2021. Referred to Senate Revenue Committee. Hearing scheduled for March 4. PASSED Committee by a 4-1 vote on March 4. FAILED in the Senate by a 11-19 vote on March 18.

U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT* (Session dates: 01/03/2021 - 10/30/2022)
Bill number	Bill Description	Status
HR 72	Would provide additional aggravating factors for the imposition of the federal death penalty	Introduced January 4, 2021
HR 97/HR 262	Would abolish the federal death penalty	Introduced January 4, 2021

Feb 05, 2021

Virginia Legislature Votes to Abolish the Death Penalty

With two historic votes, the Virginia General Assembly has moved the commonwealth to the cusp of becoming the first Southern state to abolish capital punishment, approving separate bills that would end the state’s death penalty an…

News & Developments

Mental Illness

Apr 20, 2021

Florida Bars From Medical Practice Psychiatrist Who Repeatedly Testified that Severely Mentally Ill Death-Row Prisoners Were ‘Malingering’

A controversial psychiatrist who repeatedly testified that severely mentally ill death-row prisoners were faking their symptoms and were competent to be executed has been barred from medical practice in Florida. On March 3…

Intellectual Disability

Apr 15, 2021

NEWS BRIEF — Tennessee Legislative Committees Approve Intellectual Disability Bill

On April 14, 2021, committees in both chambers of the Tennessee legislature voted to advance bills that would create a legal mechanism for death-row prisoners to challenge their death sentences on the grounds that they have intell…

Innocence

Apr 14, 2021

Nevada State Assembly Passes Bill to Repeal Death Penalty and Resentence Death-Row Prisoners to Life

The Nevada State Assembly has passed a bill that would abolish the state’s death penalty and resentence the prisoners currently on its death row to life without parole. It was the first time any death-penalty abolition bill had be…

Innocence

Apr 02, 2021

Clemency Efforts for Pervis Payne Gain Widespread Support as Execution Reprieve Set to Expire

Clemency efforts on behalf of Tennessee death-row prisoner Pervis Payne (pictured) are surging, as a petition on his behalf by The Innocence Project had collected more than 600,000 signatures by M…

Representation

Mar 30, 2021

How Capital Defenders Helped End Virginia’s Death Penalty

Virginia’s capital defenders have “worked themselves out of a job,” according to David Johnson, executive director of the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission. The commonwealth’s four capital defense offices, which opened in 2002,…

History of the Death Penalty

Mar 24, 2021

Virginia Becomes 23^rd State and the First in the South to Abolish the Death Penalty

Saying “[t]here is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the South, or in this nation,” Governor Ralph Northam (pictured) signed historic legislation making Virginia the 23^rd U.S. state and the first in the Sout…

Arbitrariness

Mar 19, 2021

Former Ohio Governor, Two Attorneys General Call for Repeal of State’s Death Penalty

The movement to repeal capital punishment in Ohio has gained additional steam as former Governor Robert Taft and former state attorneys general Jim Petro and Lee Fisher

Recent Legislative Activity

Mar 19, 2021

NEWS BRIEF — Wyoming State Senate Defeats Bill to Repeal the Death Penalty

The Wyoming state senate has defeated a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. Senate File 150, sponsored by Senator Brian Boner…

Costs

Mar 05, 2021

Wyoming Senate Committee Passes Bill to Repeal State’s Death Penalty

A Wyoming state senate committee has advanced to the full Senate a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. After taking testimony from witnesses including the state public defender’s office, family members of murder vic…