UTAH (USA): SENATE CASTS PRELIMINARY VOTE TO REPEAL DEATH PENALTY

March 1, 2016: The Senate voted 20-9 to preliminarily approve a bill that would ban prosecutors from seeking capital punishment, limiting them to life without parole. It still needs a final debate, but Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, said he believes the vote would hold and the bill will move to the House.
Urquhart argued that capital punishment is too expensive, turns killers into "rock stars" and "tortures" victims' families who have to endure decades of appeals. "There's no closure.
The wounds don't heal," he said. SB189 says aggravated murder committed before May 10, 2016, and for which the death penalty has not been sought, may not be charged as a capital offense. It would also outlaw capital punishment in aggravated murder cases from that date forward. Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, who pushed the state's sweeping justice reform initiative through the Legislature last year, would carry the bill in the House.
Urquhart said it expects it pass and land on Gov. Gary Hebert's desk. "Before we had discussions with people, there's no way it would pass. But you just have the pretty simple discussion about the death penalty and people move, they get it. I anticipate that if this hits the governor's desk, he'll also be persuaded by the arguments," Urquhart said. The bill would not affect the nine men currently on Utah's death row. But assistant attorney general Tom Brunker told a Senate committee last week that the Connecticut Supreme Court found a similar measure unconstitutional and abolished all existing death sentences in that state.
The Utah Attorney's General Office does not have a position on SB189, he said. (Source: deseretnews.com, 01/03/2016)