Bill to ban death penalty passes first Senate vote

HELENA - A bill to abolish Montana's death penalty survived its first test in the state Senate today, passing by a vote of 27-23.

Senate Bill 236, sponsored by Sen. David Wanzenried, D-Missoula, would replace capital punishment with life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lawmakers debated the bill for an hour, with supporters' agruments ranging from costs to morality. Some said that, because of required appeals, administering the death penalty is more expensive than life without parole. Others worried about wrongful convictions, while still others equated the death penalty with murder.

"It is not our position, it is not our duty to pass that judgment onto one another,” said Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder. "That's the law of the universe, that's the law of the Creator."

Sen. Gary Perry, R-Manhattan, said he began supporting death penalty abolition last session. He said life in prison without parole is essentially a death sentence in which the offender dies "according to God’s timetable."

However, senators who opposed the bill said the death penalty is needed as a deterrent and a tool to help prosecutors obtain guilty pleas.

“Having the death penalty gives prosecutors a bargaining chip to get plea bargains from murderers,” said Sen. Joe Balyeat, R-Bozeman. “If we remove this bargaining chip from prosecutors, I would argue that a lot more cases are going to go to trial.”

Some senators said they would vote against the bill because some criminals deserve to die for their terrible crimes. Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, used the case of convicted child killer Joseph E. Duncan III as an example.

“If somebody did that to one of my own, I would be enraged like Jesus was in the Bible,” Brenden said. “Jesus could get mad.”

The bill will have to pass a final vote in the Senate Tuesday before it could head to the House.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy