After Mid-Term Elections, Legislators Poised to Renew Efforts at Death-Penalty Abolition in 2019

Empowered by the results of the November 2018 mid-term elections, legislatures in at least four states are poised to renew efforts to repeal their states’ death-penalty statutes or drastically reduce the circumstances in which capital punishment is available. State legislative and gubernatorial elections in Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Oregon have redefined the local political landscape in 2019 in ways that death-penalty abolitionists say have made those bills more likely to succeed. Colorado and Oregon already have moratoria on the death penalty, but legislators in both states are expected to move forward with bills abolishing or further restricting its use. In New Hampshire, where legislators voted to repeal the death penalty in 2018 but were unable to override a gubernatorial veto, the newly-elected legislature may now have the two-thirds supermajority necessary to override. And in Nevada, where a state court found that corrections officials had engaged in “subterfuge” in attempts to obtain execution drugs, voters elected a governor who has expressed concerns about capital punishment, and legislators say they will propose an abolition bill.

In Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper, who imposed a moratorium on executions in May 2013, was barred by term limits from seeking reelection. Voters elected Democrat Jared Polis (pictured, left), who said during the gubernatorial campaign that he would sign a bill to abolish or phase out the state’s death penalty, and Democrats gained control of both houses of the state legislature. Fort Collins State Rep. Jeni Arndt, who plans to sponsor the repeal bill, said she is seeking bipartisan support for the measure, noting that “If [prosecutors] can’t get the death penalty for the Aurora theater shooter, then this is a waste of taxpayer time and money.” Outgoing senate minority leader Lucia Guzman, a past sponsor of repeal legislation, said “I have worked on this issue for several years but wasn’t able to get it passed. But I think this year is going to be the year.”

Mid-term changes to the composition of the New Hampshire legislature have increased the likelihood that the Granite State will repeal its death penalty in 2019, despite another promised veto by Gov. Chris Sununu. State Rep. Renny Cushing (pictured, right), whose repeal bill received bipartisan legislative support in 2018, is reintroducing the measure in 2019. Voters elected a veto-proof majority of sixteen abolitionist senators in November. In the state house, where the repeal bill received just under the two-thirds supermajority necessary to overcome a veto in 2018, backers of abolition are optimistic they will have even more support in 2019.

In Oregon, voters reelected Gov. Kate Brown, who pledged to extend the state’s moratorium on executions, and elected Democratic supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature. With the state constitution requiring a voter referendum to abolish the death penalty, legislators are instead seeking bipartisan support for a plan to limit capital punishment only to acts of terrorism. In Nevada, Governor-elect Steve Sisolak, who defeated state attorney general and death-penalty proponent Adam Laxalt, has indicated he is willing to sign a bill to abolish the death penalty. Assemblyman Ozzie Fumo, who favors repeal, said he expects the legislature to consider an abolition bill or to request that the governor impose a moratorium on executions. “There’s a social change coming,” Fumo said. “Overwhelmingly, we’re going to see people think about it, and say this is wrong.”