New Hampshire, Wyoming House Pass Bills to Ban Juvenile Death Penalty Less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will reconsider the constitutionality of the death penalty for juvenile offenders, two state legislative bodies have passed measures to ban the practice. The New Hampshire Senate passed its bill to ban the execution of those who were under the age of 18 at the time of their offense on February 19, 2004. The measure now moves to the House, where a committee hearing and vote are expected in the coming weeks. The Wyoming House also passed a measure to ban the execution of juvenile offenders. The House voted 45 – 12 in support of the bill on February 20, and members of the Wyoming Senate are expected to consider the ban next week. A bill is also advancing in the South Dakota legislature. Currently, 17 of the 38 states that maintain capital punishment forbid the execution of those who were juveniles at the time of their crime. The juvenile death penalty is also forbidden under the federal government’s statute. See Juveniles.
On February 20, 2001 Wyoming’s Governor signed a law to add the sentencing option of life imprisonment without parole as an alternative penalty for those convicted of first-degree murder. The bill, SB20, also limits the commutation of a death sentence to life without parole.
In January, Sen. Roberts and Rep. Rose introduced SB25 to modify aggravating circumstances for death penalty purposes.
Wyoming Legislation Prior to 2007 | Death Penalty Information Center
NEWSBRIEF — Wyoming State Senate Defeats Bill to Repeal the Death Penalty
The Wyoming state senate has defeated a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. Senate File 150, sponsored by Senator Brian Boner (R – Douglas, pictured during the floor debate), was reported out of the Senate Revenue Committee by a 4 – 1 vote on March 4, the second time a bill to end Wyoming’s death penalty had passed a state senate committee. However, the bill failed in the state senate by a vote of 19 – 11. Nine Republicans and the chamber’s two Democrats supported the measure.
In 2019, an abolition bill passed the state house of representatives and received unanimous approval in the Senate Judiciary Committee before being defeated on the floor of the senate, 18 – 12.
Calling the cost of the death penalty unaffordable, Governor Mark Gordon submitted to the legislature a budget that contained no funding for capital defense services. Both the House and the Senate approved removing funding for the death penalty. “Today’s vote to keep the death penalty, paired with that budget, risks a constitutional crisis,” said Kylie Taylor, state coordinator of Wyoming Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. “We have the death penalty — a failed government program that risks innocent lives — but no means to provide the right to an adequate defense, as defined by our Constitution.”
