2019 Legislation

1. HB 59 would expand the state’s death-penal­ty statute to make the killing of a first respon­der a cap­i­tal offense.

2. HB 273 would place a three year mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. During that time, the state would be required to imple­ment reforms to improve due process and qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and to reduce racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in the appli­ca­tion of the death penalty.

3. HB 436 would per­mit non-imme­di­ate fam­i­ly mem­bers of the vic­tim to wit­ness the exe­cu­tion, if there are few­er than eight imme­di­ate family members.

1. Introduced and referred to the House Committee on Judiciary on March 5, 2019. PASSED the full House by a vote of 94 – 0 on April 18. PASSED the Senate by a vote of 27 – 0 on May 23. SIGNED by the gov­er­nor on May 29.

2. Introduced and referred to the House Committee on Judiciary on March 21, 2019.

3. Introduced April 16, 2019 and referred to the Committee on State Government. PASSED the House 93 – 1 with 7 absten­tions on April 30. PASSED the Senate 22 – 1 with 1 absten­tion on May 15. SIGNED by the gov­er­nor on Mat 15.

1. SB 1192 would exempt peo­ple with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness from the death penal­ty.

2. SB 1209 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.

3. SB 1314 would elim­i­nate three aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stances and com­bine two cur­rent­ly sep­a­rate aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stances, reduc­ing the num­ber of cas­es that would be eli­gi­ble for the death penalty.

1. Introduced January 28, 2019. Referred to Rules Committee and Judiciary Committee.

2. Introduced January 28, 2019. Referred to Rules Committee and Judiciary Committee.

3. SB 1314 was intro­duced January 31, 2019 and referred to Senate Rules Committee and Judiciary Committee. It PASSED the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 7 by a vote of 7 – 0 and PASSED the full Senate on February 14, advanc­ing to the House of Representatives by a vote of 30 – 0. It PASSED the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 10 – 0 on March 6, and PASSED the full House by a vote of 46 – 14 on April 3. Governor Doug Ducey SIGNED IT INTO LAW on April 4.

1. HB 1494 would bar impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty on a defen­dant with severe men­tal ill­ness.

2. HB 1520 would lim­it the choic­es for a con­demned pris­on­er’s last meal to the food being served in the prison on the day of the execution.

3. SB 464 would con­ceal from the pub­lic infor­ma­tion relat­ing to exe­cu­tion drug sup­pli­ers and the exe­cu­tion process and make it a felony to reck­less dis­close any such information.

4. HB 1792 alters the pro­ce­dure for deter­min­ing men­tal com­pe­ten­cy to be exe­cut­ed. When a pris­on­er rais­es a com­pe­ten­cy chal­lenge, the Director of the Department of Correction holds a hear­ing and makes a deter­mi­na­tion of the prisoner’s competency.

1. Introduced February 18, 2019 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it was defeat­ed by a vote of 11 – 5 on March 7.

2. Introduced February 20, 2019 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

3. Introduced March 4, 2019 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it PASSED by a vote of 5 – 3 on March 6. The bill PASSED the full Senate by a vote of 25 – 9 on March 11 and was intro­duced in the House and referred to the House Judiciary Committee the same day. On April 2, the com­mit­tee rec­om­mend­ed that the bill PASS, and the bill PASSED the full House by a vote of 71 – 16 on April 3. Governor Asa Hutchinson SIGNED ACT 810 INTO LAW on April 9.

4. Introduced March 12, 2019. Passed the House Judiciary Committee on March 19. PASSED the House 90 – 10 on March 20. PASSED the Senate 34 – 0 with one absten­tion on March 27. Governor Asa Hutchinson SIGNED ACT 615 INTO LAW on March 29.

1. ACA 12 would amend the California con­sti­tu­tion to pro­vide that ​“The death penal­ty shall not be imposed as a pun­ish­ment for any vio­la­tions of law.”

2. AB-580 would amend the pro­ce­dures for com­mu­ta­tions of death sen­tences, requir­ing that the gov­er­nor noti­fy vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and allow­ing vic­tims’ fam­i­lies to request a pub­lic hear­ing before a com­mu­ta­tion is grant­ed. A com­mu­ta­tion would not go into effect until at least 30 days after such a hearing.

3. AB 1798 would cre­ate the California Racial Justice Act, allow­ing pris­on­ers to chal­lenge their death sen­tences using sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence of racial bias in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty or jury selection.

4. SCR 38 would con­demn Governor Gavin Newsom’s impo­si­tion of a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty and request that the state Attorney General con­tin­ue pursuing executions.

1. Introduced March 13, 2019.

2. Referred to Committee on Public Safety, Feb. 25, 2019. Amended by author on April 1 and re-referred to com­mit­tee on April 2.

3. Introduced February 22, 2019. Referred to Committee on Public Safety, March 21. Passed Committee 6 – 1 on April 24.

4. Introduced April 8, 2019.

SB 19 – 182 would repeal the death penal­ty.

Introduced March 4, 2019 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The com­mit­tee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on the bill on March 6 and vot­ed 3 – 2 to PASS the bill. After sev­er­al post­pone­ments of a floor vote, pro­po­nents of the bill announced on April 2 that they were with­draw­ing it from con­sid­er­a­tion dur­ing the cur­rent legislative session.

1. HB 5218 and HB 5225 would restore the death penalty.

2. HB 5632 would rein­state the death penalty.

3. SB 494 would rein­state the death penal­ty for the crime of mur­der with special circumstances.

1. Introduced January 11, 2019, referred to Joint Committee on Judiciary.

2. Introduced January 18, 2019, referred to Joint Committee on Judiciary.

3. Introduced January 24, 2019, referred to Joint Committee on Judiciary.

1. SB 472/​HB6013 would abol­ish the death penalty.

2. HB 6021 deletes require­ment that per­son con­vict­ed & sen­tenced to death pur­sue all pos­si­ble col­lat­er­al reme­dies in state court in accor­dance with specified rules.

1. SB 472 was filed January 24, 2019 and referred to the com­mit­tees on crim­i­nal jus­tice and appro­pri­a­tions. HB 6013 was filed January 15, 2019 and referred to the Judiciary Committee.

2. Filed January 25, 2019 and referred to Judiciary Committee. First read­ing March 5.

1. HB 267 would bar the death penal­ty in cas­es in which the only evi­dence of guilt is the tes­ti­mo­ny of a sin­gle eye­wit­ness.

2. HB 702 would repeal the death penal­ty and resen­tence those cur­rent­ly on death row to life with­out parole.

1. Introduced on February 12, 2019.

2. Introduced on March 28, 2019 and referred to the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee.

1. HB 2035, SB 1444, SB 1487, and SB 2109 rein­state the death penal­ty and cre­ate reg­u­la­tions for rep­re­sen­ta­tion and funding.

2. HB 3164 rein­states the death penal­ty for mur­der of a police offi­cer, fire­fight­er, or multiple victims.

1. HB 2035 filed February 1, 2019, first read­ing February 4, referred to Rules Committee. SB 1444 filed February 13, referred to Assignments. SB 1487 filed February 13, referred to Assignments. SB 2109 filed February 15, referred to Assignments.

2. Filed February 15, 2019.

SB 301 would abol­ish the death penal­ty and resen­tence those cur­rent­ly on death row to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.

Introduced on January 7, 2019 and referred to the Senate Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law.

1. SF 296 and SF 588 would rein­state the death penal­ty for the crime of kid­nap­ping, rape, and mur­der of a minor.

2. HF 62 would rein­state the death penal­ty for first degree murder.

1. SF 296 intro­duced February 19, 2019. Referred to Judiciary Committee. A sub­com­mit­tee of the Judiciary Committee vot­ed 3 – 2 on February 27 to rec­om­mend pas­sage of the bill. The Judiciary Committee PASSED the bill on March 7 by a vote of 8 – 7. The bill died after fail­ing to meet the April 5 ​“sec­ond fun­nel” dead­line for approval by com­mit­tees in both Houses of the leg­is­la­ture. SF 588 is a lat­er ver­sion of the same bill.

2. Introduced January 23, 2019. Referred to Judiciary Committee.

1. HB 2282 and SB 21 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.

2. SB 95 would require the board of heal­ing arts and board of phar­ma­cy to be involved in deci­sions relat­ed to lethal-injection protocols.

3. SB 96 would require annu­al inspec­tions of the execution chamber.

1. SB 21 was intro­duced on January 17, 2019 and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

HB 2282 was intro­duced on February 12, 2019 and referred to the Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice, which con­duct­ed a hear­ing on the bill on February 19. The com­mit­tee vot­ed 7 – 6 on February 22 to defeat the bill.

2. Introduced February 5, 2019 and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

3. Introduced February 5, 2019 and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

1. SB 17 would exempt peo­ple with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness from exe­cu­tion.

2. HB 115 would abol­ish the death penal­ty and con­vert all cur­rent death sen­tences to sen­tences of life without parole.

1. Prefiled August 31, 2018. Reported favor­ably by the Senate Judiciary Committee, February 7, 2019. Sent to Rules Committee, February 8, 2019. Recommitted to the Judiciary Committee, March 1, 2019.

2. Introduced January 8, 2019 and referred to House Judiciary Committee on January 10.

1. HB 215 would abol­ish the death penal­ty for offens­es com­mit­ted on or after August 1, 2019.

2. SB 112 would amend the state con­sti­tu­tion to abol­ish the death penal­ty for crimes com­mit­ted on or after January 1, 2020.

3. HB 258 would make secret the source of Louisiana’s execution drugs.

1. Prefiled March 27, 2019. Referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.

2. Prefiled March 27, 2019. Referred to the Committee on Judiciary. Reported with amend­ments, April 30. FAILED to pass Senate on May 6 by a vote of 13 – 25.

3. Prefiled March 27, 2019. Referred to the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice where it PASSED by a vote of 12 – 0 on May 1. It was then recom­mit­ted to the Committee on House and Governmental Affairs, where it PASSED 8 – 2 on May 7. The bill PASSED the full House by a vote of 68 – 31 on May 21, and advanced for con­sid­er­a­tion by the State Senate.

The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary B (Criminal Law) on May 22. The Committee REJECTED the bill 3 – 2 on May 28.

Introduced January 29, 2019. Hearing February 12.

1. H 1387 would rein­state the death penalty.

2. H 3773 would rein­state the death penal­ty for the killing of law enforcement officers.

1. Referred to the com­mit­tee on the Judiciary, January 22, 2019.

2. Referred to the com­mit­tee on the Judiciary, May 13, 2019. Hearing held October 8, 2019.

1. SB 2149 would elim­i­nate the death penal­ty for peo­ple who are intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. (Intellectually dis­abled offend­ers are inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 rul­ing in Atkins v. Virginia.) Where intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty has been raised as a defense, it would require a unan­i­mous find­ing by the jury that the defen­dant was not intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled before a death penal­ty could be imposed.

2. HR 8 would apol­o­gize for Mississippi’s role in the lynch­ing of Emmett Till and the acquit­tal of his killers.

3. SB 2212 would add mur­ders com­mit­ted in schools or places of wor­ship as capital crimes.

1. Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on January 14, 2019. Died in com­mit­tee, February 5.

2. Referred to Rules Committee on January 15, 2019. Died in com­mit­tee, March 29.

3. Referred to Judiciary Committee on January 15, 2019. Died in com­mit­tee, February 5.

1. SB 462/​HB 353 would exempt peo­ple with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness from the death penalty.

2. SB 32/​HB 64/​HB 1208 would repeal the death penalty.

3. SB 288 would elim­i­nate the pro­vi­sion that allows a judge to impose a death sen­tence if a jury does not reach a unan­i­mous sentencing decision.

1. SB 462 first read February 27, 2019 and referred to the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on March 11. The com­mit­tee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on the bill on April 16. HB 353 pre­filed December 19, 2018, referred to Committee on Health and Health Policy. The com­mit­tee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on April 29.

2. SB 32 pre­filed December 1, 2018. First read January 9, 2019. Second read January 17, referred to General Laws Committee. HB 64 pre­filed December 3, 2018. First read­ing January 9, 2019. Second read­ing January 10. HB 1208 intro­duced February 28, 2019. Second read­ing March 1.

3. First read January 23, 2019. Referred to Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, which held a hear­ing on April 16.

1. HB 350 would abol­ish the death penal­ty and replace it with life without parole.

2. HB 338 would require indis­putable DNA or video proof of a per­son­’s guilt in a cap­i­tal crime before the defen­dant could be sen­tenced to death.

1. Introduced on January 31, 2019 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which held a hear­ing on the bill on February 18. On a straight par­ty-line vote, the com­mit­tee vot­ed 11 – 8 to TABLE the bill. All 11 Republicans vot­ed to table the bill; all 8 Democrats vot­ed to keep the bill under active consideration.

2. The House Judiciary Committee vot­ed 15 – 4 on February 18 to reject the bill.

1. LB 44 would elim­i­nate the death penal­ty as a pun­ish­ment for first-degree mur­der.

2. LB 207 would estab­lish a Death Penalty Defense Standards Advisory Council to exam­ine the cur­rent cap­i­tal defense sys­tem in Nebraska and devel­op guide­lines and stan­dards for cap­i­tal defense representation.

3. LB 238 would change pro­vi­sions relat­ing to wit­ness­ing exe­cu­tions to make exe­cu­tions more transparent.

4. LB472 would autho­rize Gage County to levy a 0.5% sales tax to raise rev­enue to help pay the $28.1 mil­lion judg­ment against the coun­ty in the ​“Beatrice Six” wrong­ful conviction case.

1. Introduced on January 10, 2019 and referred to the Judiciary Committee on January 14. The Committee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on the bill on March 7 and on March 15 vot­ed 5 – 2 to advance the bill to the full Senate.

2. Introduced on January 11, 2019 and referred to the Judiciary Committee on January 15. The Committee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on the bill for March 7.

3. Introduced on January 14, 2019 and referred to the Judiciary Committee on January 16. The Committee con­duct­ed a hear­ing on the bill for March 7.

4. Introduced on January 18 and referred to the Revenue Committee on January 23. It was des­ig­nat­ed a pri­or­i­ty bill and placed on the leg­is­la­ture’s ​“gen­er­al file” on March 20 for con­sid­er­a­tion by the full uni­cam­er­al leg­is­la­ture. It received a favor­able 40 – 1 vote on first con­sid­er­a­tion on April 5, the ini­tial stage of leg­isla­tive approval. An amend­ment to require a coun­ty ref­er­en­dum before the coun­ty could impose the sales tax was defeat­ed by a vote of 22 – 9 on April 10. On April 18, the bill PASSED by a vote of 43 – 6. It was VETOED by the Governor on April 24, 2019, but the leg­is­la­ture OVERRODE THE VETO on April 30 by a vote of 41 – 8.

AB 149/​SB 246 would abol­ish the death penalty.

AB 149 was intro­duced on February 15, 2019 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. On April 13 the bill died in com­mit­tee when the time lim­it for action on the bill expired. SB 246 was intro­duced on March 1, 2019 and referred to Committee on Judiciary. Died on April 13.

HB 455 would prospec­tive­ly abol­ish the death penal­ty. The bill does not apply to the one pris­on­er on the state’s death row.

Introduced on January 3, 2019 and referred to the House Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, which con­duct­ed a hear­ing and heard tes­ti­mo­ny from more than 90 wit­ness­es on the bill on February 19. By a vote of 11 – 6, the com­mit­tee vot­ed to PASS the bill. PASSED the House of Representatives 279 – 88 on March 7, 2019.

Introduced in the state sen­ate on March 14 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 19. After con­duct­ing a hear­ing on March 26, the com­mit­tee vot­ed 4 – 1 on April 2 to PASS the bill. PASSED the Senate 17 – 6 on April 11.

The bill was signed by the Senate President and deliv­ered to the gov­er­nor on May 1. Governor Chris Sununu VETOED the bill on May 3. The House vot­ed 247 – 123 on May 23 to OVERRIDE the veto. The Senate com­plet­ed the repeal of the death penal­ty on May 30, vot­ing 16 – 8 vote to OVERRIDE the veto.

New Hampshire is the 21^st state to abol­ish the death penalty.

1. A 1379/​A 1391/​A 2867/​A 3599/​S 539/​S 2064/​S 2186 would rein­state the death penalty.

2. ACR 82 pro­pos­es a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment to restore the death penalty.

1. No ver­sion of the bill has advanced out of committee.

2. Introduced January 9, 2018. Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee.

1. A 6114 would rein­state the death penalty.

2. A 7222/​S 4320/​S 1995/​A 6822 would for­mal­ly remove the death penal­ty from New York law.

1. Referred to Codes, February 28, 2019.

2. A 7222 referred to Codes, April 12, 2019. S 4320 referred to Codes March 7, 2019. S 1995 referred to Codes January 18, 2019. A 6822 referred to Codes March 20, 2019.

1. HB 587 would repeal the death penalty.

2. SB 668 pro­hibits the death penal­ty for defen­dants with ​“severe men­tal dis­abil­i­ty” at the time of the crime.​“Severe men­tal dis­abil­i­ty” is defined as ​“any men­tal dis­abil­i­ty or defect that sig­nif­i­cant­ly impairs a per­son­’s capac­i­ty to do any of the fol­low­ing: (i) appre­ci­ate the nature, con­se­quences, or wrong­ful­ness of the per­son­’s con­duct in the crim­i­nal offense, (ii) exer­cise ratio­nal judg­ment in rela­tion to the crim­i­nal offense, or (iii) con­form the per­son­’s con­duct to the require­ments of the law in con­nec­tion with the criminal offense.”

1. Filed April 3, 2019. Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

2. Filed April 3, 2019. Referred to Committee on Rules and Operations.

HB 136/​SB 54 would pro­hib­it the death penal­ty for defen­dants with seri­ous mental illness.

1. HB 3268 and SB 1013 would rede­fine aggra­vat­ed mur­der to lim­it future appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty to cer­tain acts of ter­ror­ism result­ing in the deaths of two or more peo­ple and resen­tence those cur­rent­ly on death row to terms of life impris­on­ment with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.

2. HB 3269 would remove future dan­ger­ous­ness as fac­tor the jury may con­sid­er in decid­ing whether to impose the death penal­ty, require proof beyond a rea­son­able doubt that a defen­dant should be sen­tenced to death, and estab­lish pro­ce­dures for resen­tenc­ing those cur­rent­ly on death row to life impris­on­ment with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.

3. SB 461 would direct the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission to study the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty and present a report to the leg­is­la­ture by September 15, 2020.

1. HB3268 was intro­duced on March 4, 2019. SB 1013 was intro­duced on March 4, 2019 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6. The com­mit­tee con­duct­ed a pub­lic hear­ing on the bill on April 1. At a work ses­sion on April 8, the Senate ver­sion of the bill was amend­ed. Under the amend­ed bill, cap­i­tal crimes include ter­ror­ism, mur­der com­mit­ted by a pris­on­er who had been pre­vi­ous­ly con­vict­ed of mur­der, and mur­der of a vic­tim under 14 years old. The amend­ed ver­sion PASSED com­mit­tee on May 17.

The bill PASSED the full Senate by a vote of 18 – 9 on May 21 and advanced to the House for its consideration.

On May 28, the bill was referred to the House Rules Committee. The Rules Committee adopt­ed an amend­ment on June 18 that added mur­der of a police offi­cer or oth­er law enforce­ment offi­cial as a cap­i­tal crime. The House PASSED the amend­ed bill on June 19 by a vote of 33 – 26. On June 29, the Senate CONCURRED in the House amend­ments and RE-PASSED the bill by a vote of 17 – 10.

Governor Kate Brown SIGNED the bill on August 1, 2019.

2. Introduced on March 4, 2019.

3. Introduced on January 14, 2019. Referred to Judiciary Committee, January 16.

1. HB 577 would allow a sen­tence of death if at least 11 jurors find an aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance and no mitigating circumstance.

2. SB 848 would pro­hib­it impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty and make mur­der in the first degree pun­ish­able only by a sen­tence of life without parole. 

1. Referred to Judiciary Committee, February 28, 2019.

2. Introduced on September 5, 2019 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

1. H 3301 & S 0176 would make elec­tro­cu­tion the default method of exe­cu­tion, but would allow pris­on­ers to select exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion if lethal injec­tion is avail­able. It also adds fir­ing squad as a back­up method of execution.

2. H 3354 would pre­vent dis­clo­sure of iden­ti­ties of mem­bers of the exe­cu­tion team, includ­ing providers of lethal-injec­tion drugs or medical supplies.

3. S 0047 would abol­ish the death penal­ty and life with­out parole for juve­nile offend­ers. (Juvenile offend­ers are inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 rul­ing in Roper v. Simmons.)

4. S 0058 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.

1. H 3301 pre­filed and referred to the House Committee on Judiciary, December 18, 2018. S 0176 pre­filed and referred to the Senate Committee on Corrections and Penology, December 12, 2018. PASSED the Senate by a vote of 26 – 13 on January 30, 2019 and advanced to con­sid­er­a­tion by the House. It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on January 31. The House Criminal Laws sub­com­mit­tee passed the bill on April 25.

2. Prefiled and referred to the Committee on Judiciary, December 18, 2018. It was for­mal­ly intro­duced and referred to com­mit­tee on January 8, 2019.

3. Prefiled and referred to the Committee on Judiciary, December 12, 2018. It was for­mal­ly intro­duced and referred to com­mit­tee on January 8, 2019.

4. Prefiled and referred to the Committee on Judiciary, December 12, 2018. It was for­mal­ly intro­duced and referred to com­mit­tee on January 8, 2019.

1. HB 0705/​SB 1368 would add the sale or dis­tri­b­u­tion of opi­ates with the intent and pre­med­i­ta­tion to com­mit mur­der as an aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance for the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty or life without parole.

2. SB 0031 and HB 1455/​SB 1124 would abol­ish the death penal­ty for defen­dants with severe mental illness.

3. HB 0258/​SB 0400 would remove the appeal to the court of crim­i­nal appeals in death penal­ty cas­es and pro­vide for auto­mat­ic direct review by the Tennessee supreme court.

1. Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on February 11, 2019. PASSED the House by a vote of 93 – 0 on April 10. PASSED the Senate by a vote of 31 – 0 on April 15. SIGNED by the gov­er­nor on April 30, effec­tive July 1, 2019.

2. SB 31 intro­duced January 11, 2019, referred to Senate Judiciary Committee. WITHDRAWN February 12, 2019.

HB1455/​SB1124 were intro­duced February 6, 2019. HB1455 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on February 11 and assigned to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee on February 13. It was favor­ably report­ed out of sub­com­mit­tee on March 13.

SB1124 was referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on February 11, 2019.

3. SB 0400 intro­duced January 31, 2019, referred to Senate Judiciary Committee. PASSED com­mit­tee February 26.

HB 0258 intro­duced January 29, 2019, referred to Judiciary — Government Operations Committee, Constitutional Protections & Sentencing Subcommittee. PASSED the House 73 – 22 on March 18. SIGNED INTO LAW April 9 by Governor Bill Lee.

1. SB 294/​HB 246/​HB336 would abol­ish the death penal­ty.

2. HB 221 would change the stan­dards for attor­neys rep­re­sent­ing indi­gent defen­dants in capital cases.

3. SB 246 changes the mem­ber­ship of the cap­i­tal and foren­sic writs com­mit­tee and gives it greater inde­pen­dence from the judiciary. 

4. HB 1139 and SB 418 would pro­vide a statu­to­ry def­i­n­i­tion of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty for pur­pos­es of exemp­tion from cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion. The bills define intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty accord­ing to pre­vail­ing med­ical stan­dards and estab­lish pre­tri­al pro­ce­dures for a judi­cial deter­mi­na­tion of whether the defen­dant is intellectually disabled. 

5. HB 1030 would require jury una­nim­i­ty in any penal­ty-phase spe­cial issues find­ing that could sub­ject a defen­dant to the death penal­ty. SB 716 also would per­mit the court or the par­ties to inform the jury or prospec­tive jurors of the effect of the jury not reach­ing agree­ment on any of the spe­cial issues sub­mit­ted to the jury dur­ing the penal­ty phase of trial. 

6. SB 714 would expand the def­i­n­i­tion of cap­i­tal mur­der to include the mur­der of emer­gency med­ical services personnel.

7. HB 1936 would exempt peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness from the death penalty.

8. SB 929/​HB 4113 would elim­i­nate the death penal­ty for peo­ple con­vict­ed under the law of parties.

9. HB 261 would make the mur­der of any­one under age 15 eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty, rais­ing the age from 10 to 15. 

10. HB 1573 would add mur­der of emer­gency med­ical ser­vices per­son­nel to the list of crimes eli­gi­ble for the death penalty.

11. HB 3938/​SB 1554 would include the views of vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers in the fac­tors to be con­sid­ered in cap­i­tal sentencing decisions.

1. Senate ver­sion filed January 3, 2019 and referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on February 7, 2019. House Bill 246 filed November 12, 2018. House Bill 336 filed November 13, 2018.

2. Filed November 12, 2018. Referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on February 7, 2019.

3. Filed December 14, 2018. Referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on February 7, 2019.

4. The Senate ver­sion of the bill was filed January 23, 2019 and referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on February 14. The House ver­sion was filed January 28, 2019. A hear­ing was held in House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on March 18 and the bill PASSED in com­mit­tee on March 25. 

The bill PASSED the full House by a vote of 102 – 37 on April 20.

The bill was referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on May 1. It was sub­sti­tut­ed in com­mit­tee on May 17 with a bill that elim­i­nat­ed the pre­tri­al judi­cial deter­mi­na­tion of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, and the sub­sti­tut­ed ver­sion of the bill was approved in com­mit­tee. The full Senate PASSED the sub­sti­tute bill on May 22.

On May 24, the House REFUSED TO CONCUR with the sen­ate ver­sion of the bill and a con­fer­ence com­mit­tee was appointed.

5. The House ver­sion of the bill was filed January 23, 2019. The Senate ver­sion was filed February 8, 2019.

6. Filed February 8, 2019.

7. Filed February 19, 2019. Read first time and referred to Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on March 5. Passed Committee 5 – 3 on April 5. PASSED the House on May 9 by a vote of 77 – 66.

8. Filed February 20, 2019. Read first time and referred to Criminal Justice Committee on March 1.

9. SB 929 filed November 12, 2018. Referred to Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on February 19, 2019. Public hear­ing April 1, 2019. HB 4113 filed March 7, 2019. Referred to Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on March 25.

10. Filed February 11, 2019. Referred to Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on March 4. Public hear­ings held April 1 and April 25. Reported favor­ably from com­mit­tee, 5 – 4, April 25.

11. HB 3938 filed March 7, 2019. Referred to Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on March 21. Public hear­ing held April 15. SB 1554 filed March 5, 2019. Referred to Committee on Criminal Justice, March 14.

SB 1137 would exempt peo­ple with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness from the death penal­ty.

1. Prefiled December 30, 2018. PASSED Senate Courts of Justice Committee (8 – 6) on January 14, 2019. PASSED Senate (23 – 17) on January 17, 2019.

Referred to the House Committee for Courts of Justice on January 21, 2019.

1. SB 5339/​HB 1488 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.

2. SB 5364/​HB 1709 would rein­state the death penal­ty for peo­ple who com­mit mur­der while incarcerated.

1. SB 5339 intro­duced on January 17, 2019 and referred to the Senate Committee on Law & Justice. After a pub­lic hear­ing on February 5, the bill Passed the com­mit­tee on February 7 with 4 – 1 rec­om­men­da­tion, 2019. The bill PASSED the State Senate on February 15 by a vote of 28 – 19. It was referred to the House Committee on Public Safety on February 18, which con­duct­ed a pub­lic hear­ing on the bill on March 25 and vot­ed to PASS the bill on April 1.

HB 1488 intro­duced on January 23, 2019 and referred to the Committee on Public Safety.

2. SB 5364 intro­duced January 18, 2019 and referred to Law & Justice Committee. HB 1709 intro­duced on January 29, 2019 and referred to Committee on Public Safety.

1. HB 2033 would rein­state the death penal­ty and estab­lish lethal injec­tion as the method of execution.

2. HB 2712 would rein­state the death penalty.

1. Introduced January 9, 2019 and referred to House Judiciary Committee.

2. Introduced January 29, 2019 and referred to House Judiciary Committee.

1. HR 99 would pro­vide addi­tion­al aggra­vat­ing fac­tors for the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty based on the sta­tus of the victim.

2. HR 4022 (Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act) would abol­ish the fed­er­al and mil­i­tary death penal­ty, and com­mute exist­ing fed­er­al and mil­i­tary death sen­tences to life without parole.

3. HR 4052 would abol­ish the fed­er­al death penal­ty and pro­vides for resen­tenc­ing of those cur­rent­ly sen­tenced to death.

1. Introduced January 3, 2019.

2. Introduced July 25, 2019. Referred to Committee on Judiciary and Committee on Armed Services.

3. Introduced on July 25, 2019. Referred to Committee on Judiciary.