After over an hour of debate, the Massachusetts House of Representatives over­whelm­ing­ly reject­ed an attempt to rein­state the death penal­ty. Prior to the 110 – 46 vote, Governor Deval Patrick had vowed to veto the bill if it were approved. The bill was sim­i­lar to one sub­mit­ted by for­mer Governor Mitt Romney as a ​“gold stan­dard” for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.

State Representatives cit­ed high costs and the pos­si­bil­i­ty for human error as rea­sons for reject­ing the bill. Rep. Sean F. Curran, D‑Springfield stat­ed, ​“I have always been opposed to the death penal­ty. The jus­tice sys­tem is made up of peo­ple, and some­times peo­ple make mis­takes. When you’re talk­ing about the death penal­ty, there is no room for error.“

Since 1997, when the House nar­row­ly defeat­ed a bill rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty, the num­ber of Representatives vot­ing against sub­se­quent death penal­ty bills increased with an 80 – 73 vote in 1999 and a 92 – 60 vote in 2001. During Governor Romney’s term in 2005, the death penal­ty bill was reject­ed 99 – 53.

The last exe­cu­tion in Massachusetts was in 1947.
(​“House Rejects Death Penalty” by Dan Ring, The Republican). See also Recent Legislative Activity.

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