Several state legislatures have recently taken action on bills related to capital punishment. In Arkansas, a bill to abolish the death penalty passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voice vote. Bill sponsor Sen. David Burnett, a former prosecutor and judge who both sought and imposed the death penalty, said, “It’s no longer a deterrent. It’s a punishment that’s actually broken. It doesn’t work. And it costs a huge amount of money to try and prosecute those cases.” Arkansas last carried out an execution in 2005. A similar bill in Montana was approved by a House committee with bipartisan support, but failed on a tied vote (50-50) in the full House. Before the vote, repeal supporter Rep. Mitch Tropila said, “This is an historic moment in the Montana House of Representatives. It has never voted to abolish the death penalty on second reading. This is a momentous moment, and we are on the cusp of history.” Montana’s last execution took place in 2006. Virginia legislators rejected a bill to shield information related to lethal injection as state secrets. The House of Delegates voted 56-42 against the bill, which would have exempted “all information relating to the execution process,” including the source of execution drugs and the buildings and equipment used for executions, from open records laws. Del. Scott A. Surovell commented, “Anytime somebody in the government wants to restrict information about what the government is going to do, I think we need to ask some really difficult questions and get some straight answers before we grant them that right.”

(S. Willems, “Bill to abolish death penalty goes forward,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 26, 2015; M. Dennison, “House deadlocks on bill to abolish death penalty in Montana,” Billings Gazette, February 23, 2015; J. Portnoy, “Va. House kills lethal injection secrecy bill despite support of McAuliffe,” Washington Post, February 24, 2015). See Recent Legislation and State-by-State Database.

Citation Guide