2013 Legislation

Alabama*

1. Sen. Hank Sanders will intro­duce bills to abol­ish the death penal­ty (SB 30); impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions (SB 33); reform the law regard­ing men­tal­ly hand­i­capped defen­dants (SB 31), juve­niles (SB 34), and judi­cial over­ride of jury rec­om­men­da­tions (SB 32).

2. Bill to posthou­mous­ly par­don the Scottsboro boys, almost all of whom received the death penal­ty for rape in the 1930s before lat­er hav­ing their convictions overturned.

3. Bill to allow the death penal­ty where the vic­tim had pre­vi­ous­ly been giv­en a pro­tec­tive order against the defendant.

2. Unanimously PASSED the Senate and House. Gov. signed the bill.

3. PASSED the Senate 29 – 0.

Arizona*

SB 1048 would abol­ish the death penalty.

Arkansas*

1. SB 73 by Sen. Bart Hester would pro­vide spe­cif­ic pro­ce­dures and chem­i­cals for the state to use in car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions. Provides for exe­cu­tions by a sin­gle bar­bi­tu­rate to be cho­send by Dept. of Corrections.

2. Sen. Joyce Elliott intro­duced bill to repeal the death penal­ty. (HB 2166, SB 1055)

1. Passed. General hear­ing on death penal­ty Jan. 30. Lethal injec­tion bill approved 33 – 0 in sen­ate. (Feb. 7). Approved in House Judic. Com. Approved over­whelm­ing­ly in House. Gov. signed bill (Feb. 20).

2. Gov. said he would sign such a bill, though pas­sage is considered unlikely.

California

SB 779 would speed up the death penal­ty appeals process and allow use of the gas cham­ber for executions.

DEFEATED in Public Safety Com. (May2)

Colorado*

1. HB 1264 would repeal the death penalty prospectively.

2. HB 1270 would refer the ques­tion of repeal­ing the death penal­ty to a vot­er ref­er­en­dum in 2014.

Hearings on bills Mar. 19; no votes tak­en. Vote will be tak­en in House Judic. Com. on Mar. 26.

1. House Judic. Com. REJECTED repeal bill (6 – 4) on Mar. 26.

2. WITHDRAWN by sponsor.

Connecticut

No death penal­ty for future crimes, but inmates remain on death row.

Delaware*

Bill to repeal death penal­ty intro­duced in Senate Mar. 12.- SB 19.

Bill moved on from Senate Executive Committee (4 – 2) and will be con­sid­ered in Senate. House Judic. Com. may con­sid­er bill on April 24.

Senate PASSED (11 – 10) repeal bill, after amend­ing it to exclude cur­rent death row inmates (Mar. 26).

House Judic. Com. con­sid­ered the bill on April 24, but did not vote it out of com­mit­tee. On April 30, the bill was TABLED, though sup­port­ers of the bill are seek­ing oth­er ways to get the bill to the House floor.

Florida*

1.Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda will intro­duce HB 4005 to abol­ish the death penalty.

2.SB 148 would require a unan­i­mous jury for a death penal­ty rec­om­men­da­tion; would require either a con­fes­sion or sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence prov­ing guilt for a death sen­tence to be imposed.

3.SB 1750, the ​“Timely Justice Act,” would speed up death penal­ty appeals, and require the gov­er­nor to sign death war­rants once the clemen­cy process was com­plet­ed. It would restore fund­ing for the north­ern office of the Capital Collateral Representative, lawyers who rep­re­sent death row inmates after their direct appeal.

4. Bill would make a case death eli­gi­ble if the vic­tim in the mur­der was a juvenile.

1. Defeated in House Crim. Jus. Subcommittee (9 – 4) (Feb. 7).

2. Heard by Sen. Crim. Jus. Com. (Mar. 11)

3. House Criminal Justice Subcommittee-Rep. Gaetz, chair. Passed House Justice Appropriations Com. (Apr. 4). Passed Hse. Judic. Com. 14 – 4 (Apr. 16). PASSED House 84 – 34. (Apr. 24).
PASSED Senate 28 – 10 (Apr. 29); SIGNED by gov­er­nor (June 14).

4. Passed the House. (Apr. 22)

Georgia

1. HB 355 would add gang mem­ber­ship as an aggra­vat­ing fac­tor in capital cases.

2. Bill to makes the iden­ti­ty of those who man­u­fac­ture, pro­vide or admin­is­ter drugs for lethal injec­tion a ​“state secret.”

2. PASSED both hous­es; await­ing gov­er­nor’s sig­na­ture. SIGNED, but held to be prob­a­bly uncon­sti­tu­tion­al by low­er state court. Georgia Supreme Court to review ruling.

Idaho

Indiana*

Bill to abol­ish death penalty introduced

Iowa

Sen. Kent Sorenson intends to intro­duce a bill to rein­state the death penalty.

Governor, a death penal­ty sup­port­er, said pas­sage is very unlikely.

Kansas*

1. HB 2398-Bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty, replace with LWOP, and provdie funds for vic­tims’ fam­i­lies – Rep. Steven Becker. SB 126 would also repeal death penalty.

2. HB 2387 would clas­si­fy a mur­der while flee­ing from anoth­er felony as death eligible

1. Introduced Mar. 7. Bill has been put off until next year. (prob­a­bly DEFEATED)

2. PASSED House.

Kentucky*

Rep. Carl Rollins will intro­duce a bill replac­ing death penal­ty with sen­tence of life with­out parole. (HB 48 and SB 45)

Legislature con­venes Jan. 8.

Louisiana

Maryland*

1. Sen. Lisa Gladden has intro­duced a repeal bill for future offens­es, with por­tion of mon­ey saved going to fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims. (SB 276; HB 295)

2. Bill to allow the death penal­ty for mur­der on school grounds or child care center

1. Hearings in Hse. & Sen. on Feb. 14​.Gov. tes­ti­fied in favor. PASSED in Sen. Judic. Proceedings Com. 6 – 5 on Feb. 21. Victims’ sup­port mon­ey removed by amend­ment. PASSED MD Senate 27 – 20 on Mar.6.

Votes in House of Del. expect­ed week of Mar. 11. Judic. Com. PASSED bill (14 – 8). PASSEDHouse on Mar.15 (82 – 56). Gov. SIGNED the bill On May 2. (pos­si­ble ref­er­en­dum on the leg­is­la­tion in 2014 if enough sig­na­tures are gath­ered). REFERENDUM EFFORT FAILED TO GATHER SUFFICIENT SIGNATURES.

2. DEFEATED as amend­ments to repeal bill.

Massachusetts

Bill intro­duced to restore the death penalty.

House DEFEATED bill 119 – 38 by send­ing it to com­mit­tee for study. (Apr.23)

Mississippi

SB 2223 adds ter­ror­is­tic acts as an aggra­va­tor in poten­tial capital cases

PASSED both hous­es. Gov. signed the bill in late April.

Missouri*

Sen. Joseph Keaveny will file 3 bills:
1. Wrongful con­vic­tions: pro­vid­ing greater safe­guards in the use of evi­dence; allow­ing a death-sen­tenced defen­dant to request evi­dence be test­ed to prove inno­cence of an aggra­vat­ing fac­tor that led to the death sen­tence, even if the per­son can­not claim to be inno­cent of the first degree.

2. Aggravating Factors : restrict death penal­ty to only a few aggra­vat­ing fac­tors (rather than existing 17).

3. Cost: autho­rize the state audi­tor to eval­u­ate the costs of the state’s death penalty

4. Sen. Gina Walsh will file a bill to repeal the death penal­ty (SB 247).

3. DEFEATED by Senate 20 – 10 (May 13).

4. Heard in Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Com. of the senate.

Montana*

Four sen­a­tors (2 Rep., 2 Dem.) will intro­duce a bill to replace the death penal­ty with life with­out parole-LC 0019; HB 370.

Bill has sup­port of some con­ser­v­a­tives in leg­is­la­ture. House Judiciary hear­ing Feb. 14. Com. vote on Feb. 21.

Bill tabled (11 – 9) (defeat­ed) in com­mit­tee. Alternative paths to a floor vote being pursued.

Hearings held June 19.

Nebraska*

1. Sen. Ernie Chambers intro­duced a bill to abol­ish death penal­ty (LB 543).

2. Chambers intro­duced LB 542 to delete the aggra­vat­ing fac­tor regard­ing heinous, atro­cius, or cru­el mur­ders as too vague.

1. Hearings on March 13 in Judic. Com. PassedJudic. Com. (7 – 0; 1 absten.) on Mar. 19. Debate in uni­cam­er­al leg­is­la­ture May 13.
DEFEATED. Bill was fil­i­bus­tered; vote to end the fil­i­buster was 28 – 21; 33 votes were need­ed. (May 14)

Nevada

Proposed bill would autho­rize a cost study of the death penal­ty AB 444.

PASSED AND SIGNED BY GOV.

New Hampshire*

Rep. Renny Cushing work­ing on a bill to abol­ish death penalty

New gov­er­nor sup­ports abo­li­tion. Bill to be con­sid­ered in next session.

New Jersey

A‑328 and A‑1032 would restore the death penal­ty for certain offenses

New Mexico

No rein­state­ment bill intro­duced in 2013 session.

No death penal­ty but 2 inmates remain on death row.

New York

Sen. Martin Golden will intro­duce a bill to rein­state the death penal­ty for those who kill a police officer.

North Carolina

1. Bills intro­duced to repeal the Racial Justice Act and to speed up capital appeals.

2. HB 722 would exempt those with severe men­tal dis­abil­i­ty from the death penalty

1. Bill passed out of com­mit­tee on Mar. 26. Bill PASSED the Senate (33 – 14). PASSED HOUSE. SIGNED BY GOV. (June 19).

2. Considered in House Judiciary B Subcom. (May)

Ohio

Committee appoint­ed by Chief Justice of OH Sup. Ct. is review­ing the death penalty.

1. Bill intro­duced by Rep. John Becker (#244) would allow the death penal­ty for rape, sex­u­al bat­tery, and sex­u­al con­tact with a minor.

1. Law would like­ly be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008).

Oklahoma

1. Bill to require a study of costs and impact of the death penalty

2. Bill would allow the death penal­ty only in 1^st degree mur­der cas­es in which the state seeks it. Current law allows a judge to autho­rize the death penal­ty after a murder conviction.

1. Bill did not receive a hear­ing. (Defeated)

2. PASSED both hous­es; await­ing governor’s signature

Oregon*

Gov. Kitzhaber declared a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions for remain­der of his term.
Rep. Mitch Greenlick intro­duced an abo­li­tion bill. House Joint Res. 1 would begin the process of abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty by constitutional amendment.

Hearing in House Judiciary Com. on Feb. 26. Bill died (DEFEATED) in Committee. (Apr. 22).

Pennsylvania

Legislative com­mit­tee is review­ing the death penal­ty. Reform bills being introduced.

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

SB 0154 and HB 0148 would impose more secre­cy regard­ing the lethal injection process

Texas*

1. H.B. 164 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.
2. H.B. 189 would for­bid use of accom­plice or jail­house snitch tes­ti­mo­ny in death penal­ty cas­es under cer­tain cir­cum­stances.
3. S.B. 87 (Sen. Ellis) would require record­ing of police inter­ro­ga­tions of sus­pects in cer­tain crimes, includ­ing mur­der.
4. S.B. 89 (Sen. Ellis) would estab­lish an inno­cence com­mis­sion to review cases.

5. Craig Watkins, D.A. of Dallas County, has rec­om­mend­ed intro­duc­tion of a Racial Justice Act — SB 1270

6. SB 750 would estab­lish cri­te­ria for deter­min­ing intel­le­cu­tal dis­abil­i­ty for those fac­ing the death penal­ty (Sen. Ellis)

7. HB 261 would require sep­a­rate tri­als if death penal­ty sought for co-defs in the same crime.

8. SB 1292 would require test­ing of all DNA evi­dence before tri­al if death is sought

9. Bill to allow the death penal­ty for the mur­der of a District Attorney.

10. H.B. 1703 would abol­ish the death penalty.

8. PASSED Senate unan­i­mous­ly (Apr. 17). Passed and signed. Effective Sept. 1.

9. Being con­sid­ered by House Criminal Jurisprudence Com (Apr. 9).

Virginia

Washington*

Bills to abol­ish the death penal­ty intro­duced: HB 1504, SB 5372 – Rep. Reuven Carlyle

Hearing House Judiciary Com. on Mar. 6. No one tes­ti­fied against the repeal bill.

West Virginia

Del. John Overington intro­duced a bill to rein­state the death penalty

Passage con­sid­ered unlikely.

Federal

Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2013 — to halt exe­cu­tions and impo­si­tion of death sen­tences under federal law

Dec. 13, 2013 – intro­duced by Rep. Donna Edwards (Md.)