GEORGIA (USA). HOUSE PASSES DEATH PENALTY BILL

March 20, 2007: the Georgia House voted 106-65 to approve bill HB185 (see also March 12). The bill would let judges consider a death sentence if a jury was split 11-1 in favour of it.   While victims' rights groups and law enforcement hail the idea, defense attorneys are alarmed, saying that it makes it too easy to put a person on death row.
The plan now moves to the Senate.
A similar measure passed both houses in the 1980s, only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Joe Frank Harris. (Sources: Macon Telegraph, Associated Press, 20/03/2007)