Judge Blocks Nevada Board of Pardons Vote on Death-Row Commutations

A Nevada judge has blocked a request from out­go­ing Governor Steve Sisolak (pic­tured) that the Nevada Pardons Board con­sid­er com­mut­ing all death sen­tences to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Gov. Sisolak pro­posed on December 14, 2022 that the board dis­cuss the com­mu­ta­tion of the state’s 57 death sen­tences at its December 20 meet­ing. Just one day before that meet­ing was set to take place, Carson City District Court Judge James Wilson Jr. blocked the dis­cus­sion and ruled that the pro­pos­al vio­lat­ed a state law requir­ing advance notice to vic­tims’ fam­i­lies before a com­mu­ta­tion is considered.

After the par­dons board agen­da was released, Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks chal­lenged the plan to dis­cuss the com­mu­ta­tion of the death sen­tences. Judge Wilson ruled December 19 that, although the board had the author­i­ty to vote on death-row com­mu­ta­tions, it had failed to pro­vide the manda­to­ry 15-day notice of the meet­ing to vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. The notice require­ment was imposed under a 2018 addi­tion to the Nevada Constitution known as Marsy’s Law. 

Gov. Sisolak, who sits on the par­dons board along with the state attor­ney gen­er­al and sev­en state supreme court jus­tices, said at the meet­ing, ​“I could not allow myself to leave this posi­tion with­out start­ing the nec­es­sary con­ver­sa­tions. Placing this mat­ter on the agen­da was done as an act of grace and with the under­stand­ing that the death penal­ty is fun­da­men­tal­ly bro­ken.” The governor’s state­ment rep­re­sent­ed an evo­lu­tion of his views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In 2021, he expressed sup­port for lim­it­ing the use of the death penal­ty, but opposed a bill to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. A bill that passed the Nevada Assembly 26 – 16 was blocked in the state Senate. At that time, Gov. Sisolak said, ​“I’ve been clear on my posi­tion that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment should be sought and used less often, but I believe there are severe sit­u­a­tions that warrant it.”

The pro­pos­al to com­mute all of Nevada’s death sen­tences came on the heels of Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s announce­ment on December 13 that she would com­mute all 17 death sen­tences in her state. Gov. Sisolak’s char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of the death penal­ty as ​“fun­da­men­tal­ly bro­ken” echoed Gov. Brown’s com­ments call­ing it ​“an irre­versible pun­ish­ment that does not allow for cor­rec­tion; is waste­ful of tax­pay­er dol­lars; does not make com­mu­ni­ties safer; and can­not be and nev­er has been admin­is­tered fair­ly and equitably.”

Due to Gov. Sisolak’s loss in the November guber­na­to­r­i­al elec­tion, the Nevada Board of Pardons will include Republican Governor-elect Joe Lombardo start­ing in January. Lombardo said dur­ing the cam­paign that he intend­ed to ​“reverse Sisolak’s soft-on-crime poli­cies and put an end to his dan­ger­ous leg­is­la­tion that makes our streets less safe.” Nevada has not per­formed an exe­cu­tion since 2006.