- Passed
a bill in May 2003, exempting the mentally
retarded
from the death penalty in which retardation, described as
"significantly
subaverage general intellectual functioning," will be determined before
the trial. For more information regarding this legislation, Click
Here.
- Nevada
Governor Kenny Guinn signed into law
four
pieces
of legislation regarding the death penalty:
- Assembly Bill 17 increased pay for lawyers who
defend death
penalty cases. (Signed May 12)
- Assembly Bill 15 outlawed the death penalty for
the
mentally
retarded. (Signed May 21)
- Assembly Bill 13 eliminated the three-judge
panel
formerly
used for sentencing in capital cases when there were hung juries,
guilty
pleas, or bench trials. If the jury deadlocks on sentencing, the
judge decides whether to empanel a new jury or impose a life
sentence. (Signed June 9) (See
DPIC's page on Ring v. Arizona.)
- Assembly Bill 16 allows DNA testing to be used
as
evidence
on appeal in cases tried prior to the development of DNA testing.
(Signed June 9)
- Two
other pieces of death penalty legislation
were
defeated
in the Senate Judiciary Committee: Assembly Bill 14, which would
have
given
defense lawyers the final argument at trial and would have added mental
illness as a mitigating circumstance in capital cases, and Assembly
Bill
118, which would have prohibited the death penalty for minors. (Source:
Reno Gazette-Journal, June 23, 2003)
- The
Nevada Assembly's Subcommittee to Study
the
Death
Penalty and DNA Testing recently made a series of recommendations to
reform
Nevada's death penalty policies. Among the reforms supported by the
panel
are:
- ending the practice of executing those with
mental
retardation
- discontinuing the use of a three-judge panel in
capital cases
where there is a hung jury, and replace the current policy with an
automatic
sentence of life without parole or a new jury
- improving DNA testing in capital cases
- reducing the number aggravating factors that
prosecutors
can bring up during capital trials and increasing the number of
mitigating
factors that defense attorneys can use to defend clients facing a death
sentence
- urging the state Supreme court to take steps to
ensure proper
legal representation for defendants in capital cases and to provide
judges
with continuing education on how to handle these cases
- conducting a study to determine the costs to
local
and state
government to maintain the death penalty. (Associated Press, June 14,
2002).
- An
eight member committee was recently
appointed to
study
Nevada's death penalty before the 2003 Legislative session
opens. Headed by Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, a
death penalty opponent, the group was formed by the Legislative
Commission. A study of the death penalty was
ordered
after a bill was introduced last session to abolish capital punishment.
(Las Vegas Sun, 9/7/01)
