Today's Casper Star-Tribune reports, "Batch of death penalty cases drains Wyoming Public Defender's Office budget," by Joan Barron. For those following indigent criminal justice issues, it's filled with details.
A rash of actual and potential death penalty cases left the Wyoming Public Defender's Office pinched for money last year, the agency's director said Wednesday.
The office spent $665,000 on seven potential cases between July 1, 2012 and Oct. 31, 2013 compared to only one capital case in the past two budget cycles, Diane Lozano said during a budget hearing before the Legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee.
The agency handled homicide and potential death penalty cases in Park County (three), Fremont County (two), Platte County (one) and Laramie County (one).
All but one of the homicide cases were resolved by the defendants pleading guilty and receiving sentences of life in prison.
And:
The ACLU has sued Montana and a couple of other states for not providing enough money for adequate representation for indigent criminal defendants.
Also from Wyoming, there is additional news of legislation to authorize firing squads as a form of execution. "Burns: Firing squad as an alternative form of execution practical," is by Hannah Wiest in the Sheridan Press.
Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, has filed a bill for consideration by the 2014 Wyoming Legislature regarding the death penalty that has turned more than a few heads across the nation.
The bill would amend state statute to make death by firing squad Wyoming’s alternative form of execution rather than gas chamber. The primary form of execution in Wyoming — along with 35 other states, the U.S. military and the U.S. government — is lethal injection.
Burns said he was surprised by the overall negative reaction to his bill.
“Wyoming’s more the rule than the exception when it comes to the death penalty,” Burns said. “I brought the bill for practical purposes. Having the gas chamber as a back-up option in Wyoming is equivalent to stating that the back-up is being dropped from great height from a Zeppelin.”
Wyoming doesn’t have a gas chamber to use for executions, and Burns felt it would be economically impractical to pursue building one since it would likely be used very little — if ever. Burns also said he felt gas chambers are cruel and unusual punishment.
“In my opinion, it’s a very gruesome form of execution, the idea that you’re basically being suffocated to death,” Burns said. “For me personally I’d rather have a firing squad. I’d take a firing squad even over the needle.”
And:
Wyoming currently has one inmate on death row. Dale Wayne Eaton was convicted in 2004 of the rape and killing of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell, who was from Billings, Mont.
Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.
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