On Wednesday, February 10, at 10:00 am the SD Senate State Affairs committee will take on 1 bill. This is compiled using the agenda at the time of composing this post. Agendas can and do change!
One way to listen to these meetings live is via the audio links on the Schedule page of the LRC website. While there you can also view the status board for the meetings as they are going on.
This will be a long meeting!
SB 94 (SoDakLiberty Posts) – Repeal the death penalty.
SoDakLiberty Stance: Undecided
Prime Sponsors: Sen Arthur Rusch (R, Dist 17) and Rep Timothy Johns (R, Dist 31) are the prime sponsors.
Currently a Class A felony is punishable by “death or life imprisonment”. This bill would replace that with “life imprisonment without the possibility of parole”. The bill would also commute the sentence of anyone currently on death row in South Dakota to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The rest of the bill then removes statutes dealing with the death penalty.
This is a true death penalty repeal bill.
Last month I blogged pretty extensively about the death penalty. I urge everyone to listen to testimony in committee tomorrow. But for now below I have provided a repost of my recap of the death penalty forum I attended.
RECAP OF THE HUMAN FACES OF THE DEATH PENALTY FORUM
Over the last couple of weeks I have done a good number of posts focused around the Human Face of the Death Penalty forum sponsored by the South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. This post will briefly recap all of those posts for easy reference.
I have also created a YouTube playlist containing all of the individual videos from the posts listed below:
DEATH PENALTY REPEAL WILL BE A FOCUS FOR 2016, A LOOK BACK AT 2015
This post looked at the death penalty repeal legislation that was taken up in 2015. None of the bills made it out of committee.
DEATH PENALTY REPEAL FORUM PT 1: OPENING REMARKS FROM DENNY DAVIS
In this post the Denny Davis, Director of South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, gave his opening remarks and explained why it was so important to put a human face to the death penalty.
DEATH PENALTY REPEAL FORUM PT 2: JUAN ROBERTO MELÉNDEZ-COLÓN
This post focused on a man who was convicted for a crime he didn’t commit and then sentenced to death. He spent seventeen years, eight months, and one day on death row for a crime he did not commit.
DEATH PENALTY REPEAL FORUM PT 3: SHUJAA GRAHAM
This man also spent time on death row for a crime he did not commit. He has also been an advocate for making incarceration more human for all prisoners, and not just death row inmates.
DEATH PENALTY REPEAL FORUM PT 4: SUEZANN BOSLER
Bosler is a victim survivor in a death penalty case. She has been an advocate to abolish the death penalty for years.
DEATH PENALTY REPEAL FORUM PT 5: SEN COLBY COASH
This Nebraska state senator was instrumental in getting the death penalty repealed in that state during the 2015 legislative session.
DEATH PENALTY REPEAL FORUM PT 6: QA SESSION AND OPPOSING VIEW
There was a brief Q&A session at the end of the forum. Most of the QA session was centered around an audience member that is for the death penalty and has lost a family member to two men sentenced to death in South Dakota.
A FEW WORDS WITH BERNIE HUNHOFF
Sen Bernie Hunhoff (D, Dist 18) was in attendance at the event.
A SHORT CHAT WITH ARTHUR RUSH
Sen Arthur Rusch (R, Dist 17) was in attendance at the event.
A SHORT CONVERSATION WITH REP RAY RING
Rep Ray Ring (D, Dist 17) was in attendance at the event.
The post Senate State Affairs looks at repealing the death penalty on Weds Feb 10 appeared first on SoDakLiberty.
