2015 Legislation

Alabama

Bill to rein­state the elec­tric chair as a manda­to­ry form of exe­cu­tion if lethal drugs are unavail­able or if lethal injec­tion is found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al; also would make the source of drugs in executions secret.

Passed House Judic. Com.
PASSED House 76 – 26.

Arkansas*

1. Bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty intro­duced
2. HB 1473 would allow the state to use the fir­ing squad for exe­cu­tions
3. HB 1751 cre­ates a new exe­cu­tion pro­to­col allow­ing state to use either a sin­gle dose of a bar­bi­tu­rate or a 3‑drug cock­tail; would pro­vide anonymi­ty to drug suppliers.

1. Passed House Judic. Com. by voice vote.
3. PASSED both Houses and signed by Gov. (4/​15). Not clear that drugs are available.

Delaware*

Bill to repeal death penal­ty for future offens­es intro­duct­ed the week of Mar. 16.

PASSED Sen. Judic. Com. on Mar. 25. PASSED Senate 11 – 9 on April 2.
Tabled in House Com. on May 13; still sub­ject to vote to cir­cum­vent com.

Florida

1. HB 4003 would require iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of those par­tic­i­pat­ing in exe­cu­tions
2. HB 139 would require a unan­i­mous jury ver­dict for a death sen­tence; SB 664 would require unan­i­mous jury to rec­om­mend a death sen­tence and require a jury find­ing on aggra­vat­ing fac­tors.
3. HB 157 and SB 330 would require a unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion of death before a judge could impose the death penal­ty and would require juries to unan­i­mous­ly find each aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance con­sid­ered beyond a rea­son­able doubt. Would apply on to sen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings com­menced after July 1, 2016

2. Passed Sen. Crim. Just. Com.5 – 0.

Georgia

HB 71 would require expla­na­tion from the Pardons & Parole Board when it com­mutes a death sen­tence. It would also require notice to vic­tim’s fam­i­ly when a clemen­cy hear­ing is requested

Passed House. Passed Senate 55 – 0. SIGNED by Gov. Deal on May 1.

Idaho

1. SB 1005: Bill would require secre­cy for the source of lethal injec­tion drugs and names of participants.

2. SB 1040: Bill woud require the defen­dant to file any claims of inef­fec­tive assis­tance of appel­late coun­sel with­in forty-two (42) days of the Idaho Supreme Court issu­ing the final remit­ti­tur after com­ple­tion of the uni­fied cap­i­tal appeal proceedings.

1. Bill withdrawn

2. PASSED and became law. 

Illinois

HB 4059 would rein­state the death penal­ty for selected offenses

Indiana*

1. SB 8 would expand the num­ber of aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stances to add decap­i­tat­ing or attempt­ing to decap­i­tate the vic­tim while the vic­tim is still alive.
2. SB 136 would abol­ish the death penal­ty
3. SB 385/​HB1304 would allow death penal­ty for a mur­der com­mit­ted ​“in or on school prop­er­ty” or in or on grounds adja­cent to a post­sec­ondary edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion­al; or in a build­ing ​“pri­mar­i­ly used for religious worship.”

1. Referred to Senate Committee on Corrections & Criminal Law 1/​6/​15 and report­ed out of com­mit­tee 1/​14/​15. PASSED Senate 45 – 4 on 1/​22/​15. Referred to House Committee on Courts & Criminal Code on 3/​2/​15 and report­ed out of com­mit­tee on 4/​2/​15. PASSED House 93 – 1 on 4/​13/​15. SIGNED by Governor Pence and became law on 5/​5/​15.

3. SB 385 PASSED Senate, 45 – 5, on 2/​24/​15 and referred to House Committee on Courts & Criminal Code. Included in con­fer­ence com­mit­tee report as part of amend­ments to HB1304. Conference Committee Report PASSED Senate 42 – 7 on 4/​29/​15. PASSED House 75 – 22 on 4/​29/​15. SIGNEDby Governor Pence and became law on 5/​5/​15.

Iowa

S File 239 would rein­state the death penal­ty for cer­tain kinds of murders

Passage con­sid­ered unlikely

Kansas*

HB 2129 Bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty for future offens­es intro­duced by Republican Rep. Steven Becker

Bill rel­e­gat­ed to com­mit­tee with­out a hearing

Kentucky*

1. SCR-11 Resolution call­ing for a study of costs of the death penal­ty
2. Bi-par­ti­san bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty (Sen. Gerald Neal (D) and Rep. David Floyd (R)
3. Sen. Robin Webb has intro­duced a bill to reform death penal­ty pro­ce­dures, draw­ing from an ABA study of the state’s practice.

Louisiana

Legislatively appoint­ed com­mis­sion rec­om­mend­ed mod­i­fy­ing the method of exe­cu­tion to include death by nitrous gas. It also rec­om­mend­ed a bill to make the sources of lethal drugs secret.

Maine

Bill to rein­state the death penal­ty for the mur­der of a child involv­ing sexual abuse

Maryland

Bill to rein­state the death penal­ty for cer­tain mur­ders (Del. Pat McDonough)

Massachusetts

Bill to rein­state the death penal­ty for certain murders

Hearing on Oct.14, 2015.

Michigan

Bill to rein­state the death penal­ty for mur­der of law enforcement

Passage unlike­ly; state has con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment pro­hibit­ing death penalty

Mississippi

SB 2543, HB 1305 would require secre­cy regard­ing sources of drugs and personnel

Passed Senate Corrections Com. PASSED House 82 – 34.

Missouri*

1. SB 240 would autho­rize a cost study of the state’s death penal­ty
2. HB 772 Bill to abol­ish the death penalty-Republican sponsor

Montana*

HB 370 Bill to abol­ish the death penalty-Republican sponsor

Passed Hse. Judic. Com. 11 – 10. DEFEATED in Hse. on a 50 – 50 tie vote.

Nebraska*

1. LB 268 would abol­ish the death penal­ty. The intent of the leg­is­la­tion is that it retroac­tive­ly apply to those on death row, but the leg­is­la­ture may lack that pow­er. (Sen. Ernie Chambers’ bill)

2. Legislator has pro­posed intro­duc­ing the fir­ing squad as a back­up method of exe­cu­tion. Inmate would be sedat­ed first.

1. Legis. hear­ing held Mar. 4.
PASSED Judic. Com. on Mar. 9. Goes to uni­cam­er­al leg­is­la­ture. Debate April 16. 33 votes need to get past expect­ed fil­li­buster. PASSED on first vote 30 – 13. More votes required. PASSED on sec­ond vote 30 – 13. PASSED on final vote 32 – 15 on May 20. On May 26, Gov. vetoed the bill. Veto over­ride PASSED 30 – 19 on May 27.

Implementation sus­pend­ed. Referendum in Nov. 2016 to con­sid­er rein­stat­ing death penalty.

New Jersey

One leg­is­la­tor has pro­posed rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty for the mur­der of a law enforcement officer.

North Carolina

HB 774 ​“Restoring Proper Justice Act” would allow any med­ical pro­fes­sion­al (not just a doc­tor) to assist in car­ry­ing out an exe­cu­tion. An amend­ment was added to pro­vide secre­cy to those pro­vid­ing lethal injection drugs.

Passed Hse Jud Com. PASSED House 84 – 33. PASSED Senate on July 27 by 33 – 16. SIGNED by Gov. McCrory.

Ohio*

1. Bi-par­ti­san bill to imple­ment rec­om­men­da­tions of the Ohio Supreme Court task force on the death penal­ty, includ­ing improve­ments in the post-con­vic­tion appeal process.
SB 67 is such a bill–Ohio Racial Justice Act, would allow use of race bias stud­ies to show race played a pri­ma­ry role in death sen­tenc­ing. Another part of the bill would exempt the seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill from the death penal­ty: i.e., those who suf­fered from a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness that impaired their abil­i­ty to ​“exer­cise ratio­nal judg­ment in rela­tion to their con­duct, con­form their con­duct to the require­ments of the law, or appre­ci­ate the nature, con­se­quences or wrong­ful­ness of their con­duct,”
2. SB 154 would abol­ish state’s death penal­ty. House ver­sion also intro­duced (July), with bi-par­ti­san sup­port.
3. SB 139 would amend state post-con­vic­tion pro­ce­dures to elim­i­nate page lim­i­ta­tions on plead­ings in cap­i­tal cas­es and per­mit post-con­vic­tion dis­cov­ery in cer­tain cir­cum­stances
4. SB 162 would make inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty indi­vid­u­als who have seri­ous men­tal ill­ness that sig­nif­i­cant­ly impairs their capac­i­ty to exer­cise ratio­nal judg­ment, con­form their con­duct to the require­ments of law, and/​or appre­ci­ate the nature, con­se­quences, or wrong­ful­ness of their conduct.

May be con­sid­ered in July.

Oklahoma

1. Bill to use nitro­gen gas for exe­cu­tions if lethal injec­tion struck down or drugs are not avail­able
2. Bill to allow fir­ing squad if lethal injec­tion is found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.
3. Joint Sen. Resolution 31 would intro­duce a state con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment stat­ing that the death penal­ty is in effect, that the method of exe­cu­tion can be changed, and that the death penal­ty is not cru­el and unusual.

1. Passed Senate Judic. Com. 9 – 0. Passed House Com. PASSED House 85 – 10.
A sim­i­lar ver­sion of the bill PASSED Sen. Judic. Com. 8 – 0 and being sent to full Sen.
PASSED Senate 41 – 0 on Apr.9. SIGNED BY GOV.

3. Being con­sid­ered by House. PASSED leg­is­la­ture. Will be on the bal­lot in 2016.

Pennsylvania*

SB 493 would abol­ish the death penal­ty (Sen. Daylin Leach)

South Carolina

1. Bill to make the source of drugs used in exe­cu­tions secret. S.553.
2. H.4038 would allow use of fir­ing squad for exe­cu­tions if lethal injec­tion drugs can­not be obtained.

Passed Sen. Com. unan­i­mous­ly
DEFEATED in Sen. Corrections and Penology Committee by tie vote (Mar. 25). Could be resurrected.

South Dakota*

1. SB 121: Bill to repeal the death penal­ty
2. SB 122: Require a jury deter­mi­na­tion that defen­dant is a threat to com­mu­ni­ty and a dan­ger to those in prison for a death sen­tence
3. HB 1158: Allow vic­tim state­ments at pre-sen­tenc­ing hear­ings in cap­i­tal cas­es, includ­ing state­ments that vic­tim opposed death penal­ty
4. HB 1159: Institute a card allow­ing peo­ple to express oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty for the per­son charged in the event they are murdered

1. DEFEATED in Senate Affairs Com 7 – 2.
2. DEFEATED in Senate Affairs Com 7 – 2.
3. DEFEATED in House Com. 10 – 2.
4. DEFEATED in House Com. 10 – 2.

Texas*

1. HB 1527- Bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty (Reps. Harold Dutton and Jessica Farrar) 2. HB 1587- Bill to require the Department of Criminal Justice to dis­close the drugs used in exe­cu­tions and their man­u­fac­tur­ers
3. HB 3846, SB 1697 to allow the sup­pli­ers of lethal injec­tion drugs to remain secret
4. SB 1071 would require pros­e­cu­tors to give the defense advance notice of the set­ting of an exe­cu­tion date.
5. Bill would for­bid use of infor­mant tes­ti­mo­ny in death penal­ty cas­es if the wit­ness stood to per­son­al­ly gain from the testimony.

3. Passed ini­tial com­mit­tee vote.
Passed Sen. on pre­lim­i­nary vote 23 – 8. PASSED House. Additional vote need­ed. PASSED leg­is­la­ture and signed by gov.

Utah

1.HB 11 — Bill to rein­state the fir­ing squad as a method of exe­cu­tion
2. Bill to allow death penal­ty for sex traf­fick­ers (almost cer­tain­ly uncon­sti­tu­tion­al)
3. Repeal of the death penal­ty is being dis­cussed in the leg­is­la­ture, although no bill has been offered.

1. Passed House Justice Com. 5 – 4. PASSED House 39 – 34. PASSED Sen. Judic. Com 4 – 1.
PASSED Senate on Mar. 10; await­ing gov. sig­na­ture
SIGNED by gov. on Mar. 23.

Virginia

1. SB 1393: Bill to require secre­cy around the meth­ods and car­ry­ing out of exe­cu­tions
2. SB 1296: restrict death penal­ty to only those cas­es with con­clu­sive proof of guilt, such as with DNA evi­dence or a video

1. Passed Courts of Justice Com. PASSED Senate 23 – 14, with amend­ment. DEFEATED in House, 56 – 42.

2. Defeated in Committee 10 – 3

Washington*

HB 1739: Bi-par­ti­san bill to abol­ish the death penalty

DEFEATED in Hse. Judic. Com.

Wyoming*

1. Bill to rein­state the fir­ing squad as a method of exe­cu­tion
2. HB 97 would abol­ish the death penalty

1. PASSED Senate on Jan. 16. Passed House Judic. Com. 5 – 4.
BILL DEFEATED.

2. Defeated in Committee 5 – 4.

Federal

1. U.S. Rep. David Jolly (FL) will file leg­is­la­tion on Feb. 10 to make the mur­der of any police offi­cer, fire­fight­er, or first respon­der an aggra­vat­ing fac­tor in fed­er­al death penal­ty cas­es. Called the ​“Thin Blue Line Act,” the bill would cov­er any law enforce­ment offi­cer killed in fed­er­al juris­dic­tion, such as work­ing on fed­er­al land or as part of a task force.

2. On June 25, Congressmen Sensenbrenner (R‑WI) and Scott (D‑VA) intro­duced a com­pre­hen­sive bill to reform the fed­er­al crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. It includes address­ing over-fed­er­al­iza­tion; crim­i­nal dis­cov­ery reform; reau­tho­riza­tion of the Innocence Protection Act; and noti­fi­ca­tion to defen­dants and pro­vid­ing reme­dies for foren­sic sci­ence and oth­er forms of gov­ern­ment mis­con­duct and/​or error. (Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective (SAFE) Justice Act of 2015).