2017 Legislation

Alabama*

1. HB32 would pro­hib­it the court from over­rid­ing a jury’s ver­dict in a death penal­ty case and require a unan­i­mous jury vote for death to rec­om­mend a death sen­tence. A penal­ty mis­tri­al would be declared if between 6 and 11 jurors vot­ed for death, and the par­ties could elect to have the judge impose sen­tence or have a new sen­tenc­ing jury empaneled.

2. SB16 and SB18 would pro­hib­it the court from over­rid­ing a jury’s ver­dict in a cap­i­tal case. SB16 would require the court to impose a life sen­tence if a major­i­ty of the jurors vot­ed for life and would require the court to impose a death sen­tence if 10 or more jurors vot­ed for death. A penal­ty mis­tri­al would be declared if between 6 and 9 jurors vot­ed for death, and the par­ties could elect to have the judge impose sen­tence or have a new sen­tenc­ing jury empaneled.

3. SB12 would per­mit cap­i­tal defen­dants to elect to be exe­cut­ed by fir­ing squad. The elec­tion would have to be made at the time the death sen­tence is affirmed by the Alabama Supreme Court. A sub­sti­tute to the bill replaced exe­cu­tion by fir­ing squad with exe­cu­tion by nitro­gen hypox­ia.

4. SB 187 and HB 260 would set new time lim­its for fil­ing post-con­vic­tion death-penal­ty appeals, require defen­dants to file direct appeal and post-con­vic­tion appeal simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, require the tri­al court judge to appoint appel­late coun­sel with­in a spec­i­fied time, and pre­vent death-row pris­on­ers from request­ing relief out­side of the time frame indicated.

5. SB48 would set pro­ce­dures for deter­min­ing intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty in capital cases

6. SB49 would statu­to­ri­ly pro­hib­it impos­ing the death penal­ty on a defen­dant under age 18 at the time of the offense. (Would bring Alabama law in line with U.S. Supreme Court deci­sion in Roper v. Simmons(2005).)

7. SB50 would impose a three-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions.

8. SB51 would repeal the death penal­ty.

9. SB211 would pro­vide com­pen­sa­tion to death-row exoneree Anthony Ray Hinton.

1. The una­nim­i­ty bill has been pre­filed and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on February 7. The Committee reject­ed an amend­ment that would have per­mit­ted the judge to impose a death sen­tence fol­low­ing a 10 – 2 jury vote for death. The bill passed the Committee by a vote of 10 – 2 on February 16.

2. The jury over­ride bills have been pre­filed and were referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Committee con­sid­ered and approved SB16 by a vote of 5 – 3 on February 8. The bill PASSED the full Senate by a vote of 30 – 1 on February 23.

The bill was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on March 9.

The bill PASSED the full House by a vote of 78 – 19 on April 4. The bill was SIGNED INTO LAW by Governor Kay Ivey on April 11.

3. The fir­ing squad bill has been pre­filed and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 7. The Committee offered a sub­sti­tute for the bill, replac­ing fir­ing squad with nitro­gen hypox­ia, and approved the sub­sti­tute by a vote of 6 – 3 on April 6. The bill PASSED the full Senate by a vote of 25 – 8 on April 18 and was sent to the House.

The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. On May 3, the Committee amend­ed the bill to say that a pris­on­er’s choice of exe­cu­tion method ​“shall at no time super­sede the means of exe­cu­tion avail­able to the Department of Corrections.” As amend­ed, the bill was favor­ably report­ed by the Committee without debate.

4. SB 187 PASSED the Senate 28 – 5 on April 18. HB 260 was referred to the House Committee on Judiciary on February 16. It passed the Judiciary Committee on May 9, 2017, but the House con­sid­ered SB 187 instead and indef­i­nite­ly post­poned HB260 on May 17.

Without oppo­si­tion, the House amend­ed SB 187 on May 16 to set a pre­sump­tive lim­it of $7,500 in com­pen­sa­tion for appel­late coun­sel, waiv­able for good cause shown. The bill, as amend­ed, PASSED THE HOUSE on May 16 with a vote of 74 – 26. On May 18, the Senate vot­ed 26 – 3 to CONCUR in the House amend­ment. The bill was for­ward­ed to Governor Kay Ivey, who SIGNED INTO LAW on May 26.

5. Introduced on February 7 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

6. Introduced on February 7 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

7. Introduced on February 7 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

8. Introduced on February 7 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

9. Introduced on February 16 and referred to the Senate Committee on Finance and Taxation General Fund.

Arizona*

SB1518 would repeal the death penal­ty.

The bill was intro­duced on February 1 and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Arkansas*

1. HB1798 would change the pros­e­cu­tion’s penal­ty-phase bur­den of proof from beyond a rea­son­able doubt to beyond any doubt.

2. HB2103 would abol­ish the death penal­ty and replace it with life impris­on­ment.

3. HB2170 would pro­hib­it impos­ing the death penal­ty upon a per­son ​“who, at the time of the offense, had active symp­toms of a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness that sub­stan­tial­ly impaired his or her capacity.” 

1. HB1798 was intro­duced on March 1 and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on March 2. The Committee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on March 21 and reject­ed the bill by unan­i­mous voice vote. On May 1, the bill report­ed­ly ​“died in House com­mit­tee at sine die adjournment.”

2. HB2103 was intro­duced on March 6 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on March 7. The Committee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on March 21 and delayed con­sid­er­a­tion of the bill pend­ing amend­ment to a pro­vi­sion on the life-sen­tenc­ing replace­ment for capital punishment.

3. HB2170 was intro­duced on March 6 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on March 15. The Committee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on March 21 and reject­ed the bill by voice vote. 

California

AB 1443 would require the per­ma­nent reten­tion of court records in cap­i­tal felony cas­es in which the defen­dant is sen­tenced to death, ​“includ­ing records of the cas­es of any code­fen­dants and any relat­ed cas­es, regard­less of the dis­po­si­tion.” Court reporter notes in death penal­ty cas­es would also be retained permanently.

AB 1443 was intro­duced on February 17. On March 13, it was referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee and the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, where it was unan­i­mous­ly approved. On May 18, the bill unan­i­mous­ly PASSED THE ASSEMBLY by a vote of 69 – 0. 

On June 1, the bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it unan­i­mous­ly passed (6 – 0) on June 28. On July 20, the bill unan­i­mous­ly PASSED THE SENATE by a vote of 38 – 0.

The bill was SIGNED INTO LAW by Governor Jerry Brown on August 7.

Colorado*

SB17-095 would repeal the death penal­ty for offens­es com­mit­ted on or after July 1, 2017

The bill was intro­duced on January 18 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it was defeat­ed by a 3 – 2 vote on February 15.

Connecticut

HB 5540, HB 5370, and HB 5271 would rein­state the death penal­ty.

All three bills were referred to the Joint Committee on Judiciary in January.

Delaware

HB 125 would rein­state the death penal­ty for mur­der or accom­plice mur­der with 22 aggravating circumstances.

The bill was intro­duced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on April 4. It was approved by the Committee on May 3 and sent to the full House. It PASSED THE HOUSE on May 9 by a vote of 24 – 16.

Florida

1. SB280 would amend the death penal­ty statute declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in Hurst v. State to require a unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion of death before the tri­al judge may impose the death penalty.

HB527 would require a unan­i­mous vote by jury to rec­om­mend a death sen­tence and would des­ig­nate any oth­er jury sen­tenc­ing vote a rec­om­men­da­tion for a life sentence.

1a. Amendment to SB280 pro­posed in com­mit­tee express­ing ​“the intent of the leg­is­la­ture that Hurst v. State apply [retroac­tive­ly] in cas­es in which the death sen­tence became final pri­or to June 24, 2002.” 

2. HB477 would per­mit­ting charg­ing the sell­er of fen­tanyl or cer­tain oth­er opi­oids with first-degree mur­der (poten­tial­ly sub­ject to the death penal­ty) if the user of the ille­gal­ly-pur­chased dies and the drugs are ​“proven to be the prox­i­mate cause of the death of the user.” 

1. SB280 filed January 6. Referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and Rules Committee on January 25. Approved by the Criminal Justice Committee 6 – 0 on February 6. Approved by the Senate Rules Committee 10 – 0 on February 22. On March 6, the bill was placed on the Senate Special Order Calendar for March 9, and PASSED THE SENATE by a vote of 37 – 0.

HB527 was filed on January 24 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on February 6. That day, it was referred to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee. It received a 14 – 0 favor­able rec­om­men­da­tion by the sub­com­mit­tee on February 15 and a 17 – 1 favor­able rec­om­men­da­tion by the full Judiciary Committee on February 21. On March 6, the bill was placed on the the Special Order Calendar for the full House for March 9, and on March 7, the bill was intro­duced in the State Senate.

On March 10, PASSED THE HOUSE by a vote of 112 – 3. SIGNED INTO LAW by Gov. Rick Scott on March 13, 

1a. Amendment with­drawn.

2. HB477 was filed on January 24 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee and the sub­com­mit­tees on Criminal Justice and Justice Appropriations. It was favor­ably report­ed out of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee on March 17 by a vote of 13 – 1 and the Justice Appropriations Subcommittee on April 3 by a vote of 13 – 0. The bill passed the Judiciary Committee by a vote of 13 – 0 on April 6. On April 20, it PASSED THE HOUSE by a vote of 118 – 0. 

The bill was sub­sti­tut­ed for SB150 in the Senate on May 2 and amend­ed, and PASSED THE SENATE by a vote of 37 – 0 on May 3. The House refused to con­cur with the Senate amend­ment, and the Senate with­drew the amend­ment and repassed the bill on May 5 by a vote of 31 – 7. SIGNED INTO LAW by Governor Rick Scott on June 14.

Indiana*

1.SB146 would abol­ish the death penal­ty and resen­tence cur­rent death row pris­on­ers to to life with­out parole. It also would low­er from 18 to 16 the age at which a per­son could be sen­tenced to life without parole. 

2. SB155 would pro­hib­it the death penal­ty for per­sons with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness and estab­lish pro­ce­dures for deter­min­ing whether a defen­dant charged with or con­vict­ed of a cap­i­tal mur­der is seri­ous­ly mentally ill.

1. The bill was intro­duced on January 4 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

2. The bill was intro­duced on January 4 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Iowa

SF335 would make the mul­ti­ple offense of mur­der­ing a minor dur­ing the course of kid­nap­ping and sex­u­al­ly abus­ing that minor a cap­i­tal offense.

SF336 would make the mul­ti­ple offense of mur­der­ing a per­son dur­ing the course of sex­u­al­ly abus­ing that per­son a capital offense.

Senate File 335 was intro­duced on February 23 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senate File 336 was intro­duced on February 23 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bills’ pro­po­nents have report­ed­ly with­drawn them from con­sid­er­a­tion this term.

Kansas*

HB2167 would prospec­tive­ly repeal the death penal­tyand replace it with life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.

The bill, spon­sored by 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats, was intro­duced on January 25 and referred to the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice. A hear­ing was held on the bill on February 13.

Kentucky*

1. SB68(BR-137) would:

1. direct the the Legislative Research Commission to cre­ate a Task Force on the Death Penalty to study and devel­op rec­comen­da­tions regard­ing the Commonwealth’s use of the death penal­ty for cap­i­tal offens­es;
2. require that the Task Force sub­mit a final report no lat­er than December 3, 2018;
3. sus­pend exe­cu­tions until December 3, 2018, or until that report is submitted.

2. SB131(BR-1422) and HB251(BR-1377) would abol­ish the death penal­ty and replace it with life impris­on­ment with­out pro­ba­tion or parole.

3. HB219(BR-1029) would expand the death penal­ty by adding as an aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance the mur­der of a vic­tim aged 12 or under or par­tic­u­lar vul­ner­a­ble adults.

4. SB186(BR-44) would expand the death penal­ty by adding a con­vic­tion for ter­ror­ism as an aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance.

1. SB68 bill was pre­filed on December 9, 2016, and for­mal­ly intro­duced on January 3, 2017. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee on January 7.

2. SB131 was intro­duced on February 7 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 8.

HB251was intro­duced on February 7 with 17 spon­sors and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on February 9.

3. HB219 was intro­duced on February 7 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on February 9.

4. SB186 was intro­duced on February 14 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 15. It was report­ed favor­ably out of com­mit­tee on February 23. Four floor amend­ments were filed on March 1 & 2. The bill was passed over but retained for con­sid­er­a­tion by the full Senate on March 3 and recom­mit­ted to the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee on March 6. 

Louisiana*

1. HB101 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.

2. SB142 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.

1. The bill was pre­filed on March 23 and referred to the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice. The bill was amend­ed in com­mit­tee on May 17 to pro­vide that, if the leg­is­la­ture repealed the death penal­ty, that repeal would be sub­ject to rat­i­fi­ca­tion by statewide ref­er­en­dum. The bill, as amend­ed, was defeat­ed by a vote of 9 – 8.

2. The bill was pre­filed and pro­vi­sion­al­ly referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 30. On April 25, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill by a vote of 6 – 1 and sent it to the full Senate. The Senate was sched­uled to con­sid­er the bill on May 10, but con­sid­er­a­tion has been delayed.

Maryland

HB881 and SB958 would rein­state the death penal­ty for the mur­der of a ​“law enforce­ment offi­cer” or a ​“first responder.”

HB881 was intro­duced with 19 spon­sors on February 6 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it was sched­uled for a hear­ing on February 21. It was defeat­ed in com­mit­tee on March 6.

SB958 was intro­duced with 4 spon­sors on February 3 and referred to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, where it was sched­uled for a hear­ing on February 21.

Mississippi

1. HB615 would clas­si­fy ​“killing a peace offi­cer or fire­man … act­ing in his offi­cial capac­i­ty” as a hate crime and requires that any per­son con­vict­ed of a cap­i­tal mur­der that is also des­ig­nat­ed as a hate crime be sen­tenced either to life with­out parole or death. The pri­ma­ry effect of the bill would be to elim­i­nate the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole for a per­son con­vict­ed of killing a per­son involved in law enforce­ment or firefighter.

2. HB638 and SB2280 would amend state law con­cern­ing the method of exe­cu­tion to pro­vide that exe­cu­tion shall be by ​“the sequen­tial intra­venous admin­is­tra­tion” of “(a) an appro­pri­ate anes­thet­ic or seda­tive; (b) a chem­i­cal par­a­lyt­ic agent; and (c) potas­si­um chlo­ride, or oth­er sim­i­lar­ly effective substance.”

It also would estab­lish a hier­ar­chy of exe­cu­tion meth­ods if each of the more favored meth­ods of exe­cu­tions are ​“held uncon­sti­tu­tion­al or are oth­er­wise unavail­able” and vests in the Commissioner of Corrections ​“the author­i­ty and dis­cre­tion to select and obtain the sub­stances and the means nec­es­sary to car­ry out an exe­cu­tion.” The heirar­chy of exe­cu­tion meth­ods would be as follows:

1. Lethal injec­tion with three drugs
2. Nitrogen hypox­ia
3. Firing squad
4. Electrocution

3. HB769 would pro­hib­it the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty ​“when a con­vic­tion is based sole­ly on circumstantial evidence.”

4. SB2185 would require that, in a case in which a defen­dant has raised intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty as a penal­ty defense, the jury may not impose the death penal­ty unless it unan­i­mous­ly finds that the defen­dant ​“is not a per­son who is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled.”

1. The police hate crime bill was intro­duced January 13 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee B, where it is report­ed to have ​“died in com­mit­tee” on January 31. 

2. The exe­cu­tion hier­ar­chy bills were intro­duced January 13. SB2280 was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Division A, where it is report­ed to have ​“died in com­mit­tee” on January 31.

HB638 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee B and report­ed out of com­mit­tee on January 26. Attempts to amend the bill on the floor of the House to cre­ate a death penal­ty study com­mis­sion and to require the use of an ​“ulta, fast-act­ing bar­bi­tu­rate” failed by voice votes on February 8. The bill PASSED the House by a vote of 74 – 44 on February 8.

HB638 was trans­mit­ted to the Senate on February 13 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 20. It was amend­ed in com­mit­tee on February 23 to remove fir­ing squad as one of the exe­cu­tion options. On March 2, the bill PASSED the Senate as amend­ed by a vote of 38 – 13.

It was returned to the House for con­cur­rence on March 3 and the House declined to con­cur on March 20. On March 25, a con­fer­ence com­mit­tee filed its report restor­ing the fir­ing squad as the third exe­cu­tion option. The House ADOPTED the report on March 26 by a vote of 78 – 43. The Senate ADOPTED the report on March 28 by a vote of 41 – 10 and it was sent to the Governor for sig­na­ture or veto. 

The bill was SIGNED INTO LAW on April 5.

3. The cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence bill was intro­duced January 13 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee B, where it is report­ed to have ​“died in com­mit­tee” on January 31.

4. The intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty bill was intro­duced January 13 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Division A, where it is report­ed to have ​“died in com­mit­tee” on January 31.

Missouri*

1. HB135 and SB277 would repeal the death penal­ty.

1. HB135 was pre­filed on December 5, 2016 and offi­cial­ly intro­duced on January 4, 2017. As of January 20, it had not yet been referred to com­mit­tee. SB277 was intro­duced on January 10 and referred to the Senate General Laws Committee on January 19.

Montana*

HB366 would abol­ish the death penal­ty and replace it with life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.

The bill was intro­duced on February 2 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which con­duct­ed a hear­ing on the bill on February 6. The Committee vot­ed 10 – 9 on February 9 to table the bill.

Nebraska*

1. LB446 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.

2. LB661 would exempt records from pub­lic dis­clo­sure that con­tain ​“any infor­ma­tion rea­son­ably cal­cu­lat­ed to lead to the iden­ti­ty of any per­son or enti­ty that man­u­fac­tures, sup­plies, com­pounds, or pre­scribes the sub­stance or sub­stances, med­ical sup­plies, or med­ical equip­ment uti­lized to per­form a lethal injection.”

1. The death penal­ty abo­li­tion bill was intro­duced on January 17 and referred to the Judiciary Committee on January 19. The Committee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on the bill on March 22,

2. The exe­cu­tion secre­cy bill was intro­duced with 11 spon­sors on January 18 and referred to the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. A motion to instead refer it to the Judiciary Committee failedand the bill is sched­uled for a hear­ing in the Government com­mit­tee February 9.

Nevada*

1. AB90 would expand the death penal­ty to include the killing of a peace offi­cer or cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer.

2. AB237 would abol­ish the death penalty.

1. The blue lives death penal­ty expan­sion bill was pre­filed on January 30 and referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

2. The abo­li­tion bill was intro­duced on February 24 and referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which held a hear­ing on the bill on March 29.

New Hampshire

HB351 would expand the death penal­ty to include know­ing­ly caus­ing the death of a per­son who is less than 18 years of age.

The bill was intro­duced on January 5 and referred to the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. The Committee held a hear­ing on the bill on February 7. On March 1, the com­mit­tee deemed the bill ​“inex­pe­di­ent to leg­is­late” by a vote of 17 – 3. On March 8, the full House upheld the com­mit­tee deci­sion and reject­ed the bill by a vote of 305 – 46.

New Jersey

5 bills to rein­tro­duce the death penal­ty for a vari­ety of homi­cides were intro­duced in the Assembly and 3 in the Senate in 2016 as part of the 2016 – 2017 legislative session

None of the bills has advanced in committee.

New Mexico

HB72 would rein­state the death penal­ty for capital felonies.

The bill was intro­duced on January 6 and referred to the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. On March 5, the Committee reject­ed the bill by a vote of 3 – 2.

North Carolina*

HB604 would repeal the death penal­ty and replace it with life with­out pos­si­b­li­ty of parole. The repeal also would apply to pris­on­ers cur­rent­ly under sen­tence of death.

The bill was intro­duced on April 5 and referred to the House Committee on Rules, Calendar, and Operations on April 6.

Ohio*

1. HB38 would expand the death penal­ty to include the mur­der of a first respon­der or mem­ber of the mil­i­tary.

2. SB12 would pro­vide that a defen­dant can­not be exe­cut­ed if the death penal­ty can­not be sought or imposed if deci­sions in pur­su­ing the death penal­ty were based on the defen­dan­t’s race. It would per­mit the use of sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence to demon­strate that deci­sions were based on race. If rever­sal of a death sen­tence would oth­er­wise make the defen­dant eli­gi­ble for parole, the defen­dant would have to agree to accept a sen­tence of life without parole.

3. SB40 and HB81 would pro­hib­it impos­ing the death penal­ty upon a per­son who was suf­fer­ing from a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness at the time of the offense.

4. SB94 and HB389 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.

1. HB38, which has 14 co-spon­sors, was intro­duced on February 7 and referred to the House Criminal Justice Committee, where it received a hear­ing on February 21. On May 17, the bill was favor­ably report­ed out of com­mit­tee by a vote of 11 – 0. On May 17, it PASSED THE HOUSE by a vote of 96 – 0.

On May 18, the bill was intro­duced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 24.

2. SB12 was intro­duced on January 31 with 2 co-spon­sors and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 1. 

3. SB40 was intro­duced with two spon­sors and 7 co-spon­sors on February 8. It was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 15.

HB81 was intro­duced with two spon­sors and 11 co-spon­sors on February 22.

4. SB94 was intro­duced on March 7 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 15.

HB389 was intro­duced on October 23 and referred to the House Criminal Justice Committee on October 31.

Oklahoma

HB 1679, authored by House Speaker Pro Tempore Harold Wright, would elim­i­nate the elec­tric chair as a mode of exe­cu­tion and cre­ate the fol­low­ing hier­ar­chy for exe­cu­tion meth­ods in the state:

1. Lethal injec­tion
2. Nitrogen hypox­ia
3. Firing squad
4. ​“Any method not pro­hib­it­ed by the United States Constitution.”

The bill was intro­duced on January 19 and was referred to the House Judiciary — Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee on February 7. The Committee sub­sti­tut­ed a new ver­sion of the bill on February 9, which passed the Committee that day by a vote of 10 – 1. The Committee sub­sti­tute PASSED THE HOUSE by a vote of 74 – 22 on February 16.

The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 20.

Pennsylvania*

SB703 and HB166 would prospec­tive­ly repeal the death penal­ty.

SB703 was intro­duced on May 8 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

HB1466 was intro­duced on May 31 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Rhode Island

H5208 would autho­rize the death penal­ty for the ambush mur­der of a first respon­der.

H5208 was intro­duced on January 26 and referred to the House Judicilary Committee.

South Dakota

HB1099 would pro­hib­it impos­ing the death penal­ty ​“upon any per­son with a severe men­tal ill­ness with sig­nif­i­cant­ly impaired capac­i­ty at the time the offense was committed.” 

HB1099 was intro­duced on January 25, with spon­sor­ship by 23 rep­re­sen­ta­tives and 7 Senators and referred to the House State Affairs Committee. On February 13, the com­mit­tee vot­ed down the bill 8 – 4 on February 13.

Tennessee

1. HB7 and SB27 would pro­vide for auto­mat­ic direct review by the Tennessee supreme court of& cap­i­tal con­vic­tions and death sen­tences and removes an inter­me­di­ate lev­el of direct appeal to the court of crim­i­nal appeals in death penalty cases.

2. HB345 and SB378 would pro­hib­it impos­ing the death penal­ty upon a defen­dant who was suf­fer­ing from severe men­tal ill­ness at the time of the offense 

1. HB7 was filed for intro­duc­tion January 5 and offi­cial­ly intro­duced on January 10. It was referred to the House Criminal Justice Committee on January 12 and assigned to the the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice on January 24. It was placed on the sub­com­mit­tee’s cal­en­dar for February 7.

SB27 was filed for intro­duc­tion on January 11 and offi­cial­ly intro­duced on January 12. It was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee and placed on the cal­en­dar for February 7.

2. HB345 was filed for intro­duc­tion on February 1, 2017 and offi­cial­ly intro­duced on February 2. It was referred to the House Criminal Justice Committee on February 6 and assis­gned to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee on February 7.

SB378 was filed for intro­duc­tion on February 2. It was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 8.

Texas*

1. HB64, HB1537, and SB597 would abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and replace it with a manda­to­ry sen­tence of life for crimes com­mit­ted when the offend­er was younger than age 18 and with a manda­to­ry sen­tence of life with­out parole for offend­ers age 18 or older.

2. HB147 and HB316 would pre­clude impos­ing the death penal­ty upon a defen­dant who is found guilty of a cap­i­tal felony sole­ly under the Texas law of par­ties(based sole­ly upon the acts and intent of anoth­er) and would pre­clude the state from seek­ing the death penal­ty against a defen­dant based sole­ly upon the law of par­ties.

3. HB1676 would estab­lish an Office of Capital Appellate Defender to rep­re­sent cap­i­tal defen­dants dur­ing the direct appeal stage of their case.

4. SB958 would require cap­i­tal defen­dants to file a state peti­tion for habeas cor­pus with­in 45 days of the date the Court of Criminal Appeals issues its deci­sion on direct appeal, rather than 180 days after the con­vict­ing court appoints coun­sel for the defendant.

5. SB1065 would require each juror to sep­a­rate­ly deter­mine the answers to the penal­ty-phase spe­cial ques­tions and to inde­pen­dent­ly con­sid­er the weight of mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence and would per­mit a death sen­tence only if all jurors indi­vid­u­al­ly answered yes to the spe­cial ques­tions and all jurors indi­vid­u­al­ly deter­mined that evi­dence did not mit­i­gate against the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty. It also would specif­i­cal­ly list resid­ual doubt as a fac­tor mit­gat­ing against impos­ing the death penalty. 

6. HB3080 would pre­clude impos­ing the death penal­ty on per­sons with active psy­chot­ic symp­toms of severe men­tal ill­ness that sub­stan­tial­ly impair the person’s capac­i­ty to: (1) appre­ci­ate the nature, con­se­quences, or wrong­ful­ness of his or her con­duct; (2) exer­cise ratio­nal judg­ment in rela­tion to his or her con­duct; or (3) con­form his or her con­duct to the require­ments of the law.

1. HB64 was filed on November 14, 2016. An iden­ti­cal com­pan­ion bill, HB1537, was filed on February 3, 2017. HB64 was referred to the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on February 13. 

SB597 was filed January 24 and was referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on February 8. 

2. HB147 was filed on November 14, 2016 and was referred to the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on February 13. HB316 was filed on November 14, 2016 and was referred to the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on February 15.

3. HB1676 was intro­duced on February 8 and referred to the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on March 6.

4. SB958 was filed on February 17 and and was referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on March 1.

5. SB1065 was filed on February 23 and was referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on March 6.

6. HB3080 was filed on March 7.

Utah

1. HB176 would add to the def­i­n­i­tion of aggra­vat­ed mur­der a homi­cide that was com­mit­ted inci­dent to crim­i­nal con­duct in which the defen­dant com­mit­ted or atte­mot­ed to com­mit human traf­fick­ing, human traf­fick­ing of a child, or aggra­vat­ed human traf­fick­ing.

(Note: Utah’s death penal­ty statute already autho­rizes the death penal­ty when the mur­der occurred dur­ing a crim­i­nal act or episode involv­ing actu­al or attempt­ed kid­nap­ping, child kid­nap­ping, aggra­vat­ed kid­nap­ping; actu­al or attempt­ed rape, sodomy, sex­u­al abuse, aggra­vat­ed sex­u­al abuse, or rape, sodomy, sex­u­al abuse, aggra­vat­ed sex­u­al abuse of a child.)

2. HB187 would direct the Legislative Auditor General to con­duct an audit of the com­par­a­tive costs of the death penal­ty cap­i­tal offens­es and non-death penal­ty cap­i­tal cas­es.

1. HB176 was intro­duced January 23 and was referred to the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on January 27. It was report­ed to the full House with a 6 – 5 favor­able rec­om­men­da­tion on February 3 and nar­row­ly PASSED THE HOUSE on February 21 by a vote of 38 – 37. It was referred to the Senate Rules Committee on February 22 and the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee on February 23 and returned to the Senate Rules Committee with­out hav­ing been con­sid­ered by the Judiciary Committee on March 6.

On March 9, placed in the House file for bills not passed.

2. HB187 was intro­duced on January 24 and was referred to the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on January 27. It was report­ed to the full House with a 8 – 2 favor­able rec­om­men­da­tion on February 7 and PASSED THE HOUSE on February 21 by a vote of 72 – 0. It was referred to the Senate Rules Committee on February 22 and the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee on February 23, from which it received a favor­able rec­om­men­da­tion by a vote of 4 – 0 on March 6. It was returned to the Rules Committee, where it died in com­mit­tee on March 9 and was placed in the House file for bills not passed.

Virginia

1. HB1522 and SB1348 would pro­hib­it impos­ing the death penal­ty upon a defen­dant with severe men­tal ill­ness. The deter­mi­na­tion of severe men­tal ill­ness would be made by the jury or judge in the penal­ty phase of a capital trial. 

2. HB1882 offers a tech­ni­cal amend­ment to the state’s crim­i­nal code, replac­ing the term ​“men­tal retar­da­tion” with the term ​“intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty” for pur­pos­es of statutes gov­ern­ing capital punishment. 

1. HB1522 was pre­filed on December 22, 2016 and referred to the House Committee for Courts of Justice. It was assigned to the Courts Subcommittee on Criminal Law on January 27, 2017, where it was tabledby voice vote on January 30.

SB1348 was pre­filed on January 11 and referred to the Senate Committee for Courts of Justice, where was passed by indef­i­nite­ly by a vote of 9 – 5 on January 23.

2. The bill was pre­filed on January 11 and referred to the Committee for Courts of Law. It was unan­i­mous­ly approved by the com­mit­tee (20 – 0) on January 20 and PASSED THE HOUSE on January 26 by a vote of 99 – 0. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee for Courts of Justice on January 27. It was unan­i­mous­ly approved by the com­mit­tee (15 – 0) on February 6 and PASSED THE SENATE on February 8 by a vote of 39 – 0.

The bill was SIGNED INTO LAW by Governor Terry McAuliffe on February 20.

Washington*

HB1935 and SB5354 would repeal the death penal­tyand replace it with life impris­on­ment with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of release or parole.

HB1935 was intro­duced on February 3, 2017 and referred to the House Committee on Judiciary, where it had a pub­lic hear­ing on February 15. No fur­ther action was tak­en on the bill dur­ing the 2017 reg­u­lar ses­sion and, by res­o­lu­tion, it was ​“rein­tro­duced and retained in present sta­tus” in each of the 3 spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sions in 2017.

SB5354 was intro­duced on January 20 by 12 Senators ​“by request of Attorney General” and referred to the Senate Committee on Law & Justice. No action was tak­en on the bill dur­ing the 2017 reg­u­lar ses­sion and, by res­o­lu­tion, it was ​“rein­tro­duced and retained in present sta­tus” in each of the 3 spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sions in 2017. 

Wyoming*

HB240 would repeal the death penal­ty.

The bill was intro­duced with 5 House spon­sors and two Senate spon­sors on January 26 and referred to the House Minerals Committee, where it is list­ed as hav­ing died in com­mit­tee on February 3.

Federal

HR 115 (the ​“Thin Blue Line Act”) would expand the fed­er­al death penal­ty to make the killing of state and local police offi­cers an aggravating circumstance.

The bill was intro­duced in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 2017 and referred tp the House Judiciary Committee. The Committee advanced the bill on April 27 by a vote of 19 – 12. The House of Representatives PASSED the bill by a vote of 271 – 143 on May 18.