Indiana death chamber The Senate responded to last year's murder in a Purdue classroom with a bill allowing the death penalty for shootings in schools or during worship services. A House committee has approved one expansion of the death penalty, but put another on hold. The Senate responded to last year’s murder of a Purdue teaching assistant in his classroom with a bill allowing the death penalty for school shootings or shootings during worship services. But Public Defender Council executive director Larry Landis says the bill would break new and questionable legal ground by allowing the death penalty based not on the method of killing or the character of the killer or victim, but on where the murder took place. “I don’t think arbitrarily saying if it’s a building it’s gonna be subject to the death penalty,” Landis says, “but if it’s a school gymnasium used for basketball, and somebody breaks in and shoots one of the basketball players, does that count? So you...
Striving for a World without Capital Punishment