The AP report is, "Senate panel hears bill to abolish death penalty," by Stephen Dockery. It's via the Flathead Beacon.
State lawmakers considered a proposal Tuesday to abolish the death penalty in Montana and make the maximum allowable punishment life in prison without parole.
Similar measures have come before the Legislature in previous sessions and failed. If this bill passes, it will go into effect immediately and change the sentences of two inmates currently on death row in Montana.
Senate Bill 185 sponsored by Democratic state Sen. David Wanzenried of Missoula drew emotional testimony during the hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee from relatives of murder victims, church leaders, state prosecutors and jail wardens.
"Occasionally we have a chance to talk about things that really hit close to home and define who we are as humans, this is one of those bills," Wanzenried said.
Supporters argued the death penalty is immoral, expensive and irreversible in the case of wrongful conviction. They also said investigators can use the threat of capital punishment to manipulate suspects.
Opponents responded with interpretations of the Bible that say the death penalty is morally acceptable and said the financial costs involved in holding an inmate for life are high. The death penalty also is an important tool to avoid lengthy trials and eliminates the risk of a dangerous criminal escaping from prison, they added.
KFBB-TV reports, "Lawmakers Take on the Death Penalty." It's by Kacey Drescher.
Diana “Weezee” Cote’s teenage daughter was murdered in 2007. “The thing that hurt me worst was when people would come up to me and ask are you going to go for the death penalty, they’d ask me that, how could you say that? I said this person just murdered my daughter and you’re asking me if I want to go out and murder him now?” Cote asks.
She supports Senator David Wanzenried’s Senate Bill 185 which abolishes the death penalty in Montana for life in prison without parole. “For the offenders not sentenced to death does that mean the lives of their victims worth less?” asks Wanzenried (D- Senate District 49.)
Senator Wanzenried asked lawmakers to spend 15 minutes in a jail cell before forming an opinion on the death penalty. “Lock them in a little cage. Six by nine feet, made out of concrete and steel with a steel bunk and a fire retardant mattress that’s about three inches thick,” says Ron McAndrew a former Death Row Warden in Florida.
Since 1974, three Montana inmates have been executed and the bill would change the fate for two inmates currently on Death Row in Montana. “There were times, while doing my time without parole sentence, had they rolled that gurney by my cell and said Randy you wanna jump up here and end your pain and suffering, I would have buckled myself on it gladly,” says Randy Steidl who spent 12 years on Death Row for a crime he did not commit.
While opponent say Capital Punishment provides closure for the victims’ families, many criticize the costs involved.
“Every day, I wake up and something reminds me of my son that is no longer with me,” says Representative Tom Berry, (R-House District 45.)
“When a person commits a crime, there should be a penalty,” says Representative Joe Read (R-House District 15.)
The bill’s sponsor says it costs $36,000 dollars per year to incarcerate an inmate at Deer Lodge (Montana State Prison,) but due to the lengthy legal process it costs six to seven times more total - to execute that same inmate over their lifetime.
The bill is awaiting a vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2009, the Montana Senate passed repeal legislation; it stalled in the House.
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