State Legislative Roundup: New Legislation on the Death Penalty

The first month of 2024 marks the start of new leg­isla­tive ses­sions for many states and a num­ber of new pro­pos­als per­tain­ing to the death penalty.

Efforts to Abolish the Death Penalty

Missouri, Kentucky, and Ohio leg­is­la­tors have intro­duced new bills to abol­ish the death penal­ty in their respec­tive states and resen­tence those on death row to life in prison with­out the oppor­tu­ni­ty for parole. In Missouri, a group of Republican law­mak­ers has raised con­cerns with the state’s use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and is advo­cat­ing for its abo­li­tion. Representative Chad Perkins filed a bill in ear­ly January to abol­ish the death penal­ty, telling the press that ​“moral­ly, [he feels] oblig­at­ed” to sup­port pro-life leg­is­la­tion. ​“Anyone who says they’re pro-life should feel a lit­tle con­flict­ed on this top­ic – because if you’re pro-life then I think you’ve got to look at it and say you’re that way from the begin­ning to the very end. And I don’t think that the gov­ern­ment should have a monop­oly on vio­lence.” In 2023, Missouri exe­cut­ed four indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing one pris­on­er with cred­i­ble claims of inno­cence. Republican Representative Jim Murphy told the press that he ​“believe[s] the death penal­ty is some­thing that we real­ly need to exam­ine and put to an end to because there’s just too many errors to be made and it’s just too big an error to make.” In the 2023 leg­isla­tive ses­sion, Representative Tony Lovasco intro­duced an amend­ment to defund the death penal­ty process in Missouri, gar­ner­ing more sup­port from his Republican col­leagues than his Democratic col­leagues have had with sim­i­lar bills in the past. Despite the bipar­ti­san sup­port of this amend­ment, how­ev­er, the bill was not passed. Rep. Lovasco says he has seen increased momen­tum for action on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment issues with his Republican col­leagues. ​“We’re see­ing, final­ly, will­ing­ness to have a dis­cus­sion about this with­in the Republican Party… both behind the scenes and now final­ly in the public.”

In the Missouri state sen­ate, Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman filed leg­is­la­tion that would not abol­ish the death penal­ty but would repeal a state law that allows a judge to deter­mine cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing when a jury can­not reach a unan­i­mous deci­sion. Other than Missouri, Indiana is the only oth­er U.S. state where a judge can impose a death sen­tence when a jury can­not reach a unan­i­mous sentencing decision.

In Kentucky, Representative James Tipton intro­duced a bill to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty and replace the state’s most severe pun­ish­ment with life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The bill would also resen­tence those already on death row. Since Kentucky’s rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty in 1975, just three exe­cu­tions have been car­ried out, with the last one tak­ing place in 2008.

Bipartisan efforts to abol­ish the death penal­ty in Ohio began in 2023 with the intro­duc­tion of death penal­ty abo­li­tion bills in both the state House and Senate. Two of four hear­ings were held last year and the remain­ing two hear­ings will be sched­uled in 2024. Representative Jean Schmidt (R‑Loveland), a pri­ma­ry spon­sor of the house bill, cit­ed her pro-life beliefs in her sup­port of this bill. Rep. Schmidt ​“believe[s] life begins at con­cep­tion, and it ends with nat­ur­al death.” For Rep. Schmidt, ​“the death penal­ty stops [nat­ur­al death] because the death penal­ty is any­thing but natural.”

Efforts to Expand Use of the Death Penalty

Legislators in sev­er­al states have or will intro­duce bills to either rein­state the death penal­ty or expand cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment eli­gi­bil­i­ty. West Virginia abol­ished the death penal­ty in 1965, but there have been efforts in recent years to rein­state cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. State Senator Mike Stuart has said he will intro­duce a bill meant to bet­ter pro­tect law enforce­ment and first respon­ders from vio­lence. ​“Whether you dri­ve an ambu­lance, whether you’re a fire­fight­er depart­ment work­er… a state troop­er or a patrol­man… [w]e need to make very clear in West Virginia that if you ambush law enforce­ment or first respon­ders in the line of duty, the death penal­ty is on the table,” said Sen. Stuart. U.S. Senator from North Carolina, Thom Tillis, is call­ing for sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion at the fed­er­al lev­el, which would per­mit the death penal­ty or life in prison with­out parole for the mur­der of local or fed­er­al law enforce­ment offi­cers. In addi­tion, West Virginia State Senate President Craig Blair announced that he intends to intro­duce a bill that would rein­state the death penal­ty for any­one who sells fen­tanyl that results in the death of another person.

A bill intro­duced by State Senator Mike Moon in the Missouri General Assembly seeks to expand death penal­ty eli­gi­bil­i­ty tin cas­es of first-degree statu­to­ry rape and first-degree sex traf­fick­ing of a child. One of Sen. Moon’s col­leagues, Representative Maggie Nurrenbern said while she has con­cerns about sex traf­fick­ing and abuse, espe­cial­ly per­tain­ing to chil­dren, ​“the death penal­ty does not deter that sort of behav­ior.” Representative Richard Brown called Sen. Moon’s pro­pos­al ​“rather disturbing.”

Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth filed a bill in the state leg­is­la­ture that would make the rape of a child under the age of twelve a death-penal­ty-eli­gi­ble offense. ​“The death penal­ty is reserved for the worst of the very worst in our soci­ety, and there is no oth­er crime more depraved, more sadis­tic or hor­ri­fy­ing than the mur­der or rape of a child,” Representative Lamberth said. ​“Someone who preys, stalks, and hunts down chil­dren is a mon­ster and should be pun­ished as such. This change more ade­quate­ly reflects [Tennessee’s] val­ues when it comes to protecting children.”

Both of these bills mir­ror a 2023 law passed in Florida that per­mits the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of sex­u­al bat­tery of a minor under the age of twelve. All three pieces of leg­is­la­tion con­flict with the United States Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), which held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to sen­tence a per­son to death for a crime that did not result in death or was not intend­ed to result in death.

Efforts to Adopt Alternative Methods of Execution

Nebraska leg­is­la­tors have intro­duced a bill that would use lethal gas as an alter­na­tive to lethal injec­tion. State Senator Loren Lippincott and 17 co-spon­sors intro­duced a bill to use nitro­gen hypox­ia, or suf­fo­ca­tion through nitro­gen gas inhala­tion, as a method of exe­cu­tion. Sen. Lippincott said that because cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is on the books in Nebraska, the leg­is­la­ture ​“need[s] to make the exe­cu­tion of Nebraska law as humane as pos­si­ble.” He claims that death by nitro­gen hypox­ia would be a ​“pain­less” and ​“very humane way” to car­ry out exe­cu­tions. Three oth­er states — Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — allow for the use of nitro­gen gas in exe­cu­tions. No state has ever used nitro­gen hypox­ia as a method of exe­cu­tion, but Alabama intends to do so in a January 25^th scheduled execution.