2014 Legislation

Alabama

1. HB 216, SB 194- to stream­line appeals (Fair Justice Act)
2. HB 218, SB 193- to allow the death penal­ty for mur­der at a school or day­care cen­ter
3. SB 244-Eliminate judges pow­er to over­ride a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for a life sen­tence.
4. HB 379 ‑Mandate secre­cy for lethal injection process

Session begins Jan. 14. Both 1 & 2 passed House and Senate Judiciary Com.

4. Passed House Judiciary. Passed House (77 – 19). Amended in Sen. to allow dis­clo­sure to judge. DEFEATEDin Senate, Apr. 3.

Arizona

1. Bill pro­posed to expand list of aggra­vat­ing fac­tors, includ­ing caus­ing death when smug­gling
2. SCR 1002-Bill to amend con­sti­tu­tion, repeal­ing the death penalty

1. Passed in House Judiciary Com. (7 – 1). Passed House 35 – 24. Passed Senate 19 – 9. VETOED BY GOVERNOR.

Arkansas

California

District Attorneys have pro­posed a bal­lot ini­tia­tive for 2014 that would cur­tail the appeals process

Financial impact being stud­ied; spon­sors would have to gath­er over 800,000 sig­na­tures to place on ballot.

Lacking suf­fi­cient sig­na­tures, the mea­sure has been moved to a pos­si­ble ref­er­en­dum in 2016.

Colorado

1. SB 69 would lim­it death penal­ty appeals
2. HB 1197 would lim­it Gov.‘s pow­er to grant clemency.

1.Defeated in com­mit­tee.

2. Defeated.

Delaware

SB 19: Repeal bill car­ried over from 2013

The bill stalled in com­mit­tee on a 6 – 5 vote. No fur­ther action tak­en in 2014.

Florida

1.HB 4011 would repeal death penal­ty

2. Compensation for exon­er­at­ed inmate Jamers Richardson

2. PASSED leg­is­la­ture in early May.

Georgia

Awaiting GA Sup Ct rul­ing on secre­cy of lethal injection

Idaho

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

1. SB 126 would repeal the death penal­ty
2. SB 257 to cur­tail appeals process

2. Passed Senate Judiciary Com. Senate gave pre­lim­i­nary approval Feb. 11. Bill like­ly Defeated near end of session.

Kentucky

Bills intro­duced to repeal death penalty

Louisiana

1.HB 71 would accel­er­ate appeals
2. HB 328 would rein­state exe­cu­tions by elec­tro­cu­tion and would pre­vent dis­clo­sure of lethal injec­tion drug sources
3. HB 278 allow death sen­tence for mur­der of a prison worker

1. Bill with­drawn for more study.

2. Sponsor with­drew the bill

3. Passed out of com­mit­tee. Passed House 73 – 19.

Maryland

1. Following repeal in 2013, pro­posed bud­get would include $500,000 to help mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies
2. Bill to rein­state the death penal­ty for mur­der of a corrections officer

1. PASSED leg­is­la­ture; made part of bud­get.

2. Defeated in com­mit­tee 13 – 8.

Mississippi

Missouri

1. Bill to impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions
2. Bill to adopt the fir­ing squad for exe­cu­tions
3. Bill to make lethal injec­tion infor­ma­tion more pub­lic
4. HB 644, SB 247 to repeal death penal­ty
5. Bill to allow Dept. of Corrections to select method of exe­cu­tion
6. HB 1855 would require faster set­ting of exe­cu­tion dates

4. Referred to committee.

Montana

Nebraska

Repeal bill likely

Short ses­sion; bill may not be pro­mot­ed this year

Nevada

New Hampshire

1. HB 1170-Repeal bill — for future offenses

2. Repeal mea­sure made part of anoth­er bill (SB 202) in the House on May 12.

1.House hear­ings in Crim. Justice & Pub. Safety Com. Jan. 16. Vote week of Feb. 10. Passed House Crim. Justice Com. Feb. 11 (14 – 3). Passed House of Rep. on Mar. 12 (225 – 104).

Hearings in Senate Judic. Com., Apr. 3. Committee vot­ed 2 – 2, mean­ing bill will be sent to the Senate, but with­out a rec­om­men­da­tion of pas­sage. Vote like­ly Apr. 17. On Apr. 10, sen­a­tor who was absent from com­mit­tee vote vot­ed for repeal, mean­ing that repeal was passed3 – 2.

DEFEATED in a 12 – 12 Senate vote on April 17. Motion to kill the bill also defeat­ed 12 – 12. Bill was tabled; could be brought up again if 13 senators approved.

2. Amendment repeal­ing the death penal­ty passed in House, sent to Senate with a vote of 226 – 110. Senate can accept the amend­ed bill, reject it, or call for a conference committee.

North Carolina

SB 594 would bring state’s deter­mi­na­tion of intel­le­cu­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty in line with 2014 Supreme Ct. rul­ing (Hall v. Fl.)

Ohio

1. Moratorium on exe­cu­tions
2. Require gov­er­nor and pris­ons’ chief to be present for exe­cu­tions
3. HB 385 Repeal bill (intro­duced in Dec. 2013)
4. HB 663 to for­bid dis­clos­ing the iden­ti­ty of the com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy or phar­ma­cists prepar­ing lethal injec­tion drugs; may also grant immu­ni­ty from dis­ci­pli­nary action to med­ical per­son­nel who par­tic­i­pate in executions.

4. Likely to be vot­ed on in the lame duck ses­sion at the end of 2014. PASSED both hous­es and was signed by the gov­er­nor on Dec. 19. Hides the iden­ti­ty of the source of drugs for exe­cu­tions and of those par­tic­i­pat­ing in executions.

Oklahoma

A bill to allow the state to use nitrous gas in exe­cu­tions was intro­duced in Sept.

Oregon

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

South Dakota

Repeal bill intro­duced by Rep. Steve Hickey

Defeated in Committee 7 – 6 (Feb. 20)

Tennessee

HB 2476, SB 2580 would man­date the elec­tric chair if lethal injec­tion is unavailable.

House com­mitte passed bill. Senate passed bill 23 – 3. House PASSED its bill on April 16 by 68 – 13. Warden would have to obtain per­mis­sion from the gov­er­nor to use the elec­tric chair. The gov­er­nor signed the bill on May 22, 2014.

Texas

Utah

Bill to allow exe­cu­tions by fir­ing squad if lelthal injec­tion drugs are unavailable

Passed in com­mit­tee 9 – 2 (Nov. 2014). Likely to face final vote in Jan. 2015.

Virginia

1. HB 1052-Bill to estab­lish elec­tric chair as the method of exe­cu­tion if lethal injec­tion drugs can not be found
2. Bill to elim­i­nate any use of the elec­tric chair in VA

1. Passed House (64 – 32) on Jan. 22. Moves to Senate. DEFEATED in Senate (tie). On Feb. 6, on con­sid­er­a­tion of House bill, returned to com­mit­tee (21 – 19), like­ly end­ing the bill.

Washington

Repeal bill SB 1504 from last ses­sion like­ly to be again on the agenda

West Virginia

HB 2595 would rein­state death penalty

Wyoming

1. Bill to estab­lish fir­ing squad as method of exe­cu­tion if drugs for lethal injec­tion can’t be found
2. HB 134 to repeal death penalty

1. DEFEATED in Senate. May be con­sid­ered in 2015.
2. DEFEATED.

Federal

Carry over bill from 2013 to repeal fed­er­al death penalty