Senate
Bill 60: Advisory Vote on Capital Punishment,
20th Alaska Legislature, 1997-1998
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SB 60 represents an significant effort on the part of death penalty proponents to reintroduce the capital punishment to Alaska. Had it passed, SB 60 would have put an advisory vote on the death penalty before Alaska voters on the November 1998 ballot, which would have been an important step toward possible eventual enactment of a statute authorizing capital punishment in the state. This article describes the legislative history of SB 60 using resources available at the Alaska State Legislature's website. |
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Alaska
has not had a death penalty since the Territorial Legislature abolished
it in 1957, two years before statehood. (See "A
History of the Death Penalty in Alaska.") The Alaska Legislature
has considered a number of bills in the past several years which would
reinstate the death penalty for specified crimes. In the 20th Legislature
(1997-1998), Senate Bill 60, calling for an advisory vote on capital punishment,
passed in the Alaska Senate but was held up in the House Finance Committee
and never made it to the House floor. (SB 52 in the 19th Legislature also
proposed an advisory vote.)
SB 60 represents an significant effort on
the part of death penalty proponents to reintroduce the capital punishment
to Alaska. Had it passed, SB 60 would have put an advisory vote on the
death penalty before Alaska voters on the November 1998 ballot, which
would have been an important step toward possible eventual enactment of
a statute authorizing capital punishment in the state.
This article describes the legislative history of SB
60 using resources available at the Alaska State Legislature's website.
Resources related to SB 60 include:
- Legislative history of SB 60
- Text
of SB 60, "An Act providing for an advisory vote on the issue of
capital punishment"
(also available in Adobe Acrobat format); - March 10, 1997: Senate Judiciary Committee Minutes
- April 9, 1997: Senate
Finance Committee Minutes -- Summary;
Minutes of testimony; and
Additional minutes (following a brief recess) - April 11, 1997: Senate Rules Committee Minutes
- April 29, 1997: Senate Rules Committee Minutes
- May 8, 1997: House Judiciary Committee Minutes
- Text
of HCS SB 60 (JUD) (House Judiciary Committee Substitution for SB
60);
(also available in Adobe Acrobat format) - January 29, 1998: House Finance Committee Minutes
| SB 60 introduced in the Senate |
Passage of SB 60 would not authorize the death penalty in Alaska, but would authorize a non-binding advisory vote, placing on the ballot the yes or no question: "Shall the Alaska State Legislature enact a law providing for capital punishment for murder in the first degree and establishing procedures for the imposition of capital punishment that are consistent with the United States Constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court?"
| Senate Judiciary Committee |
The bill was introduced by Joe Ambrose, a member of Sen. Robin Taylor's staff. Mr. Ambrose cited a March 1996 statewide poll of 550 Alaskans, in which 62 percent of the respondents indicated their support of the death penalty for murder, 35 percent supported the option of life
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The committee heard testimony from Charles Campbell, former director of the Division of Corrections when it was still part of the Department of Health and Social Services (Corrections is now a cabinet-level department) and Dean Guaneli, Assistant Attorney General with the Alaska Department of Law. Both testified in opposition to the bill and to capital punishment, citing evidence of a lack of deterrent value of the death penalty, racial and cultural disparities in its application, expense, effect on murder victims' families, the danger of executing innocent people, and potential negative effect of death penalty case law on the prosecution of other criminal cases.
SB 60 moved out of committee with a vote of 4 to 1, with Senators Pearce, Miller, Parnell, and Taylor voting "yea," and Senator Ellis voting "nay." The committee recommended the bill's passage, also with a vote of 4 to 1, with Senators Pearce, Miller, Parnell, and Taylor recommending "do pass" and Senator Ellis recommending "do not pass." The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee. The Senate Journal contains a record of the action.
| Senate Finance Committee |
The bill was introduced to the committee by Senator Robin Taylor, a sponsor of the bill.
The committee heard testimony in favor of the bill from from Dudley Sharp, Vice President of Justice For All, a crime victims advocacy organization based in Houston, Texas which favors the death penalty. Mr. Sharp discussed costs of the death penalty in Texas, which leads the nation in its use of capital punishment.
Testimony in opposition to the bill was heard from Cathy Kainer; Hugh Fleischer; Barbara Hood; James McComas, President of Alaskans Against the Death Penalty (AADP); Susi Gregg Fowler, a relative of murder victims; Charles Campbell, former director of the Division of Corrections (who also testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee); Barbara Brink, Acting Public Defender, who discussed a fiscal note on anticipated costs of the death penalty to the Alaska Public Defender Agency and costs of the death penalty in other states; and Josh Fink of Alaskans Against the Death Penalty.
Margot Knuth, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, was available for questions.
Senator Al Adams (D, Kotzebue) moved an amendment to the bill which would provide information on the costs of implementing a death penalty on the ballot for
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Senator Adams moved a second amendment which would give voters a choice of alternatives besides a death penalty. This amendment also failed by a vote of 1 to 6, with Senator Adams favoring the amendment and Senators Parnell, Donley, Phillips, Torgerson, Pearce, and Sharp opposing the amendment.
SB 60 moved out of committee with a vote of 6 to 1, with Senators Torgerson, Donley, Phillips, Parnell, Pearce, and Sharp in favor of the motion and Senator Adams opposed. The committee recommended the bill's passage by a vote of 4 to 1 (2 gave no recommendation). Senators Sharp, Pearce, Phillips, and Torgerson signed "do pass"; Senators Parnell and Donley signed "no recommendation"; and Senator Adams signed "do not pass." The Senate Journal contains a record of the action.
| Senate Rules Committee |
| Amendments attempted in full Senate |
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Senator Jim Duncan (D, Juneau) offered a second amendment, which would revise the question on the advisory vote ballot to give voters three options for the punishment of first degree murder: life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; the death penalty; or the penalty currently authorized by law (a sentence of 20-99 years imprisonment). See the complete text of Amendment No. 2. The amendment failed with a vote of 5 to 12, with Senators Adams, Duncan, Ellis, Hoffman, and Mackie, favoring the amendment and Senators Donley, Halford, Leman, Miller, Parnell, Pearce, Phillips, Sharp, Taylor, Torgerson, and Ward, and Wilken opposed to it. (Three senators, Green, Kelly, Lincoln, were excused.)
Senator Al Adams (D, Kotzebue) offered a third amendment, which would add language to the ballot question stating that "the death penalty has been applied disproportionately to Alaska Natives and other minorities historically in Alaska and the other states that have, or have had, a death penalty...." See the complete text of Amendment No. 3. The amendment failed with a vote of 5 to 12, with Senators Adams, Duncan, Ellis, Hoffman, and Mackie, favoring the amendment and Senators Donley, Halford, Leman, Miller, Parnell, Pearce, Phillips, Sharp, Taylor, Torgerson, and Ward, and Wilken opposed to it. (Three senators, Green, Kelly, Lincoln, were excused.)
The bill was placed on the Senate's April 30 calendar.
| SB 60 passes the Senate |
| SB 60 introduced in the House |
| House Judiciary Committee |
Representative Eric Croft (D, Anchorage) moved to amend the bill by inserting language which provide estimated fiscal costs of the death penalty and estimated fiscal costs of life imprisonment without parole into the question as it would appear on the ballot. This amendment would be in
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Rep. Croft noted that estimates for the cost of a death penalty were fairly consistent. Studies conducted in California and New York estimated $5 million more for the death penalty in those states. (See Specific Issues: Costs of the Death Penalty for more on studies of costs in other states.) Rep. Croft distributed an information sheet on "Death Penalty Cost Analysis -- First Four Years" which compared figures compiled by the pro-death penalty Hickel Administration with figures calculated by the Knowles Administration, which opposes capital punishment. Estimates by both administrations of the expected costs of capital punishment -- approximately $4 million per death penalty case -- were close to each other and also agreed with estimates in other states. (The two administrations differed in their totals -- $25 million versus $40 million for the first four years of a reinstated death penalty -- because the Hickel Administration estimated 6 death penalty cases per year, versus 10 death penalty cases per year estimated by the Knowles Administration.)
Discussion by other committee members clarified the estimated costs: a death penalty case resulting in an execution would cost the state about $4,065,000, whereas a life sentence without possibility of parole would cost approximately $1.7 million, as calculated by the affected agencies,There was additional discussion of the source and reliability of the estimates and of the affect of restrictions of appeals on costs. The estimates reflected conditions prior to some recent reforms restricting the appeals in death penalty cases, and so might constitute a "worst case scenario" of how much the death penalty would cost, but some appeals could not be eliminated; however, reforms in Alaska's post-conviction relief process by the previous legislature had probably streamlined the appeals process about as tightly as constitutionally permissible, so appellate costs of a criminal case in Alaska could probably not be made any more efficient than they currently are. (See Specific Issues: Limiting Appeals & Habeas Corpus Reform for more on efforts to restrict appeals in death penalty case.)
Additional discussion touched on issues regarding the danger of executing innocent persons; the actual number of capital cases that might actually be expected; the exact crime for which the death penalty would be mandated (e.g., murder of a police officer, murder of a child, or first degree murder in general); the perceived benefits of capital punishment, and the perceived benefits or dangers of providing cost estimates in the question on the proposed advisory ballot.
The committee heard testimony from Josh Fink, an intern with Alaskans Against the Death Penalty.
The committee adopted Rep. Croft's amendment to SB 60 by a vote of 4 to 3, with Reps. Porter, Croft, Berkowitz and Chairman Green favoring the amendment and Reps. Bunde, Rokeberg and James opposing the amendment. The amended bill, House CS for Senate Bill No. 60 (JUD) (also available in Adobe Acrobat format (CS stands for committee substitution), then moved out of committee with a vote of 5 to 2, with Reps. Bunde, Porter, Rokeberg, James, and Green voting in favor of moving the bill out of committee. and Reps. Croft and Berkowitz opposed. The House Journal contains a record of committee recommendations.
| House Finance Committee |
The committee heard testimony in favor of the bill from Sen. Robin Taylor, the bill's principal sponsor; and Sen. Jerry Ward.
Testimony in opposition to the bill from Ron Reed, Juneau; Stephen V. O'Connor, Anchorage; Lisa Fitzpatrick, Anchorage; Jennifer Fiess, an Anchorage attorney; Rich Curtner, an Anchorage attorney; Barbara Hood, Anchorage, who works with Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation; Jennifer Rudinger of the Alaska Civil Liberties Union; Barbara Brink, Alaska Public Defender Agency; Christine Davidson, Anchorage; Cari Stoddard, Anchorage; Dana Lederhos, Anchorage; Leslie Hieber, Office of Public Advocacy; Karen Button, Anchorage; Richard Heacock, Alaska Christian Conference; Jim McComas, Alaskans Against the Death Penalty; Peggy Burgin, Anchorage; Dale Kelly, Alaskans Against the Death Penalty; Vicki Otte, Alaska Native Justice Center, Anchorage; Isabel Hesson, Juneau; William Cole, a Juneau physician; Cami Moline, Juneau; Charles Campbell, Juneau; Chip Wagoner, Juneau, former chair of the Southeast Republicans; Lizzie Berne, Douglas; Mary J. Horton, Juneau; and Ellen Campbell, Juneau.
SB 60 was held in committee for further consideration.
On March 4, 1998, in the full House of Representatives, Rep. Vezey moved for SB 60 to be discharged from the House Finance Committee. The motion failed by a vote of 1 yea to 30 nays, with two representatives excused and 7 absent. (Only Rep. Vezey voted for the bill to be discharged from House Finance.) The House Journal contains a record of the action.
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Green, Melissa S. (2001). "Senate Bill 60: Advisory Vote on Capital Punishment, 20th Alaska Legislature, 1997-1998." In Melissa S. Green, compiler (1998-2009), Focus on the Death Penalty (website). Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage. <http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/death/alaska/1998sb60.html> (accessed date). |
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