USA - Nevada

USA - Nevada. Democrats Squander Opportunity To End Death Penalty

May 13, 2021:

Nevada Democrats Squander Opportunity To End Death Penalty
An effort to abolish the death penalty in Nevada, a state with one of the largest per capita death rows in the country, collapsed on Thursday after Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) said he would not support the abolition bill.
“At this time, there is no path forward for Assembly Bill 395 this legislative session,” Sisolak said in a statement. “I’ve been clear on my position that capital punishment should be sought and used less often, but I believe there are severe situations that warrant it.”
The Democratic majority in the state Assembly passed AB 395 last month, marking the first time a death penalty abolition bill has cleared either chamber of the Nevada legislature. With Democrats also in control of the state Senate and the governorship, the bill should have been well positioned to become law. But as the Friday deadline to move the bill out of a Senate committee loomed, key Democrats wavered.
Senate Judiciary Chair Melanie Scheible and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro both work as prosecutors for the Clark County district attorney’s office when the legislature is out of session. Their boss, District Attorney Steve Wolfson, has testified against AB 395 and is currently trying to schedule an execution.
Scheible, who had previously publicly stated her support for ending the death penalty, did not hold a hearing or a committee vote on AB 395, and Cannizzaro never committed to holding a floor vote. Neither lawmaker responded to HuffPost’s requests for comment.
The politicians’ refusal to act squanders a rare opportunity to abolish the death penalty.
Nevada has not carried out an execution since 2006, in part because drug manufacturers have fought against their products be used to kill.
Anti-death penalty advocates suspect that the lawmakers were waiting for a signal from the governor that if they passed a bill, he would sign it into law. During his gubernatorial campaign in 2017, Sisolak said he was opposed to capital punishment but later walked back his position and said he might support the death penalty for particularly horrific crimes, citing Stephen Paddock, the man who opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas in 2017, killing 60 people and himself.
On Thursday, as the deadline to advance the abolition bill drew near, there were discussions about adding an amendment to allow capital punishment for mass shooting perpetrators, as an attempt to gain support from hesitant lawmakers. It would have significantly reduced the number of people eligible to be killed by the government. But midday Thursday, Sisolak announced an end to the legislative effort. The governor did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nevada-death-penalty-abolition-bill-stalls_n_609d8d71e4b099ba7534aeb2