RESOURCES: Recent Legislative Acitivity on the Death Penalty

DPIC is col­lect­ing infor­ma­tion on pend­ing leg­is­la­tion relat­ed to the death penal­ty. For exam­ple, at least nine states will con­sid­er bills to repeal the death penal­ty in 2012. In California, a coali­tion called Taxpayers for Justice has been col­lect­ing sig­na­tures to place a death penal­ty repeal ini­tia­tive on the bal­lot in November. On January 25, the Washington Senate Judiciary Committee held a pub­lic hear­ing on a bill to repeal the death penal­ty. The bill’s spon­sor, Sen. Debbie Regala, cit­ed high costs as a rea­son for the bill: ​“We can keep the pub­lic safe with putting peo­ple in prison for the rest of their life, as opposed to the cost­ly expense of exe­cut­ing them… It’s always impor­tant and valu­able for us to look at pub­lic pol­i­cy and see if it’s actu­al­ly get­ting us the results that we want. When you’re fac­ing an eco­nom­ic cri­sis, you add an extra lens.” Other states con­sid­er­ing repeal bills are Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania. A few states, such as New Hampshire, have blls to expand the death penalty.

(R. La Corte, ​“Lawmakers con­sid­er bill to abol­ish death penal­ty,” Seattle Post Intelligencer, ” January 24, 2012; See SAFECalifornia​.org for more infor­ma­tion California’s ini­tia­tive). See Recent Legislative Activity (addi­tions welcomed).