Christian denominations ascribe slightly different meanings to Rome's crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his professed resurrection, but holding up Christ's death as an example of justice and an endorsement of capital punishment is a novel interpretation.
On Thursday, the Wyoming Senate summarily defeated a bill, 18-12, that would have repealed the state's dealt penalty.
The legislation had passed the state House by a comfortable margin and been unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, the Casper Star Tribune reports.
"The vote was different than I expected to see from talking with people beforehand," said state Sen. Brian Boner (R), the bill's main Senate sponsor. "There's a lot of different factors and, at the end of the day, everyone has to make their best determination based on the information they have."
Proponents of the measure had cited the cost of maintaining the death penalty — about $1 million a year — said abolishing it would create a more humane justice system that couldn't execute innocent people, and showcased evidence that capital punishment doesn't deter crime.
Opponents argued that executing inmates gives closure to the relatives of their victims and said it was a useful law enforcement tool.
And then there was state Sen. Lynn Hutchings (R), who pointed to Jesus, believed by Christians to have been without sin.
"The greatest man who ever lived died via the death penalty for you and me," Hutchings said. "I'm grateful to him for our future hope because of this. Governments were instituted to execute justice. If it wasn't for Jesus dying via the death penalty, we would all have no hope."
Boner shrugged. A lot of the no votes "had a deep conviction that someone can do something so heinous that they have to die," he told the Star Tribune. "There's no amount of reason or facts that you can give them that will change that."
Source: theweek.com, Peter Weber, February 14, 2019
Wyoming Senate Rejects Attempt To Abolish The Death Penalty
An effort to abolish the death penalty in Wyoming has failed. The Senate voted 18 to 12 to defeat a bill that would have changed Wyoming’s maximum punishment to life without parole.
Senator Brian Boner said the death penalty in Wyoming costs the state millions of dollars, even though nobody has been executed since 1992. Boner said he understands why some want vengeance, but he says a state should not act that way.
“But that’s not what the justice system is supposed to be about. Justice is supposed to be blind. It’s supposed to be based on reason and emotion, what brings out the best result for society. Not emotion, not retribution, not revenge,” said Boner.
Senator Michael Von Flatern of Gillette argued that sitting in prison for life is a greater punishment than being executed. But others pushed back and said it was an important tool for the state to have.
Ranchester Senator Bo Biteman said getting rid of the death penalty is a bad idea.
“On one hand we are saying it’s ok to sentence innocent children to death up to the day of birth for being an inconvenience. And yet all the while we are seeing a push across this country to spare the lives of convicted rapists, murderers and pedophiles. I find it backwards and I’d much rather we abort the murderers, rapists and pedophiles,” said Biteman.
Department of Corrections Director Bob Lampert told a legislative committee this week that the state doesn’t have access to drugs that would be used to provide a lethal injection. Senator Stephan Pappas said lawmakers will need to resolve that issue.
Source:
wyomingpublicmedia.org, Bob Beck, February 15, 2019
Wyoming Senate defeats death penalty repeal bill
The Wyoming Senate defeated a bill Thursday that would have repealed the state's death penalty, ending the most successful legislative attempt to do away with capital punishment in recent memory.
Having passed the House by a safe margin, the bill was swiftly voted down by the Wyoming Senate on its first reading. The final vote was 12-18.
"The vote was different than I expected to see from talking with people beforehand," said the bill's sponsor in the Senate, Brian Boner, R-Converse. "There's a lot of different factors and, at the end of the day, everyone has to make their best determination based on the information they have."
The death penalty repeal passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Proponents of the bill argued that it would save the state money and create a more humane justice system, an argument that had gained substantial traffic in the House of Representatives. Sponsors of the bill noted that since the death penalty had been reinstated federally in 1973, approximately 165 death row inmates had been exonerated around the country and, according to research cited by the bill's sponsor and in anecdotal testimony from members of law enforcement, the threat of death was deemed to be an ineffective deterrent to committing crime.
In the Senate -- which has trended more conservative than the House this session -- the bill had garnered several unlikely allies. Sen. Bill Landen, a reluctant sponsor of the bill, said that after years of budget cuts and eliminating line item after line item, said he could no longer go home and feel good explaining the myriad cuts he's made to the state budget while defending retaining annual expenses like the death penalty, which costs the state roughly $1 million a year.
"Regardless of my personal thoughts -- my religion doesn't believe in the right to kill people -- that's not enough for me," he said.
Opponents of the bill, meanwhile, argued retaining the death penalty would allow the justice system to offer closure to victims of the most heinous crimes, and could be used as a tool to coerce confessions from the state's worst perpetrators. Others, simply voted by feeling, Boner said.
"A lot of (the no votes) had a deep conviction that someone can do something so heinous that they have to die," Boner said. "There's no amount of reason or facts that you can give them that will change that. I also think there's a generational gap, that folks who were from a time where the death penalty were used more often are more accustomed to it. It might have worked 30, 40 or 50 years ago, but that's just not the case anymore."
Several senators had other reasons for voting against the bill. Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, said that while the death penalty could be used as an effective tool, it was also a means to keep the state's justice system from turning into the type seen in other states. He then noted that states like California -- in some cases -- have allowed inmates to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
"I think we're becoming a lot like other states, and we have something to defend," he said.
Sen. Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne, argued that without the death penalty, Jesus Christ would not have been able to die to absolve the sins of mankind, and therefore capitol punishment should be maintained.
"The greatest man who ever lived died via the death penalty for you and me," she said. "I'm grateful to him for our future hope because of this. Governments were instituted to execute justice. If it wasn't for Jesus dying via the death penalty, we would all have no hope."
Wyoming has not executed a prisoner since 1992.
Source: Casper Star-Tribune, February 15, 2019
Death-penalty repeal fails in Wyoming despite new support
A proposal to repeal the death penalty has failed in Wyoming after getting more support from state lawmakers than ever before.
The Wyoming Senate voted against the proposal 18-12 on Thursday.
This is the 6th year in a row that death penalty repeal has failed in the Wyoming Legislature but this year the idea got far more support than previously. The bill passed the House and 2 legislative committees before failing in the Senate.
Proponents of repeal pointed to the high cost of death-penalty cases for the state Public Defender's Office. Wyoming faces a tight fiscal outlook due to a drop in revenue from the state's coal, oil and natural gas industries.
Death-penalty advocates argued it can help bring closure for victims and is appropriate for the most heinous crimes.
Source: Associated Press, February 15, 2019
⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us:
deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.
Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
