"SD lawmakers refused to repeal death penalty," is the AP report via KTIV-TV.
A move to repeal the death penalty in South Dakota has once again been rejected in the state Legislature.
The House Health Committee voted 8-5 to kill a measure that would have repealed the death penalty and changed the sentence for all death-row inmates to life in prison without parole.
The bill's main sponsor, Rep. Gerald Lange of Madison, says the death penalty is immoral. Lange has sponsored similar bills in past years.
And:
South Dakota has two men on death row. Their appeals are pending in federal court.
Today's Yankton Press & Dakotan carries the editorial, "As We See It: Deadly Serious."
THUMBS DOWN to news that the South Dakota Legislature has once again killed a bill that would repeal the death penalty. Much of the United States lags behind its peers in the developed world, where the death penalty is a rarity. The argument is often made, as it was this week by South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, that the death penalty protects the public and deters others from committing murders. However, that logic is not supported by the facts. In 2008, the average murder rate in states with the death penalty was 5.2 per 100,000. For those without the death penalty, that number was 3.3. Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota do not have the death penalty and their murder rates are on par, if not lower, than South Dakota. When you also take note of the more than 100 people who have been released from death row because new evidence exonerates them, the moral argument for repealing it is very compelling.
Earlier coverage from South Dakota begins with this post.
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