• Michigan Lawmakers Reaffirm State’s Longstanding Ban on Capital Punishment In a vote uphold­ing the state’s long­stand­ing abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty, Michigan law­mak­ers refused to sup­port a mea­sure that would have put cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment before state vot­ers in a ref­er­en­dum. The vote fell 18 short of the 2/​3 required for pas­sage. During a lengthy House debate regard­ing the bill, Representative Jack Minor (D‑Flint) told his col­leagues that stud­ies show crime rates are low­er in states with­out the death penal­ty. He not­ed, ​“The death penal­ty’s not a deter­rent. In fact, the fig­ures would sug­gest it’s just the oppo­site.” Other oppo­nents of the mea­sure stat­ed that ​“revenge would not help vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. Michigan has not had the death penal­ty for 158 years, and vot­ers have not addressed the issue since its abo­li­tion was includ­ed in the 1963 revi­sion of the state con­sti­tu­tion. Michigan is one of 12 states in the U.S. that does not have a death penal­ty. (Michigan Live, March 19, 2004) The state was the first English speak­ing gov­ern­ment in the world to ban the practice.