News Coverage of the South Dakota Legislative Hearing & Vote

Both of these news articles have extensive coverage of the House committee hearing and vote.

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports, "House rejects repeal of death penalty, 7-6," by John Hult.

A state House committee Friday narrowly defeated a proposal to repeal the death penalty in South Dakota.

The panel voted 7-6 to kill the bill after more than two hours of emotional testimony, including calls for a death penalty repeal from two former attorneys general and pleas for support from the families of murder victims.

House Bill 1188 would have left the death penalty in place for the three inmates now on death row.

Rep. Steve Hickey, a Sioux Falls pastor and Republican legislative bill sponsor, told committee members that the punishment does not deter crime. It costs taxpayers more than a life sentence and devalues the sanctity of life.

"Death penalty repeal effort fails in House committee," is by  Meredith Colias of the Rapid City Journal.

The House State Affairs Committee voted 7-6 to reject a measure that would have banned the death penalty in future cases. It sought to leave in place the death sentences of the three convicted murderers on South Dakota's death row, but prosecutors said the bill's language might have allowed those three to avoid execution.

“I think the closeness of the vote reflects what a difficult issue it is,” House Majority Leader David Lust, R-Rapid City, said. “I think people struggle with that issue.”

Lust said he voted in favor of pushing the effort forward that failed, because he did not believe the death penalty was an effective policy.

And:

The three men on South Dakota's death row are Charles Russell Rhines, convicted of the 1992 slaying of Donnivan Schaeffer, 22, during the burglary of a Rapid City doughnut shop; Briley Piper, convicted of the 2000 killing of Chester Allan Poage, 19, near Spearfish; and Rodney Berget, an inmate convicted of the 2011 killing of Sioux Falls prison guard Ronald Johnson during a botched escape attempt.

Earlier coverage of the South Dakota repeal bill begins at the link.