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Mid-Missouri |
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P.O. Box 268 |
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For a full list of death penalty bills under consideration this session please visit the Bills page.
Please contact these legislators as well as your own. The House has a web site giving contact information for all the Representatives. The Senate has one as well. Thank them for sponsoring the legislation and urge them to support the bills.
If you are not sure who your legislators are the Senate has a web page to help you look them up.
To be part of an e-mail/phone alert system, or if you know of others who support a moratorium (especially in the districts noted above, please contact Jeff at 573-449-4585 or e-mail
Not only did the U.S. Supreme Court intervene to at least temporarily halt the execution of Antonio Richardson, but last week state legislators also showed some welcome signs of compassion. Here’s some information on several legislative issues:
HB 265/ HB 369. On Thursday, the Missouri State House passed the bill, excluding people with mental retardation from being considered for the death sentence. Rita Linhardt was in the Capitol for the historic vote. She noted that the vote on the bill was an impressive 93 representatives voting for passage and 21 voting against the measure. A few dozen other legislators were not in the chamber at the time and tallied their votes by the next day. Thus the final vote was an even more incredible 130-23. On one other occasion in the past decade a similar measure passed out of one legislative house. This marks the first time in the past few years that the bill hasn’t had to be tacked onto another legislative bill.
Some other thoughts on the bill’s passage from Rita: the sponsor of HB 265, Rep. Craig Hosmer did a masterful job of introducing the bill for the third reading before the full House (It is also worth noting that the previous week, Rep. Hosmer had cleverly introduced the bill just before lunch break for second reading on the floor. He asked for a voice vote. Many of the representatives had already left the chamber. It passed with a very large number of the legislators already out of the chamber. This maneuver with its passage insured that HB 265/HB 369 would later be voted on without any amendments). Rita noted that several representatives seemed very unaware during the third reading of the bill that it had even passed on a vote the week earlier. From her perspective, Rep. Hosmer articulated clearly and concisely the need for this reasonable legislation, a compromise between prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Just a few legislators voiced criticism of the bill, citing the case of Antonio Richardson as a prisoner they feared would have escaped a death sentence under the law. Besides Rep. Don Lograsso (R-Blue Springs) who spoke in favor of the bill as he did eloquently last session as well, Rita added there was a surprise ally who rose on the floor. It was none other than Rep. Jon Dolan (R-Lake St. Louis) who called it "good legislation" and a "tightly-drawn" provision allowing a "way to reach someone who is vulneralble." He also made it quite clear he remained a strong proponent of the death penalty. But no doubt his words helped calm many Republicans and other conservatives.
Suggested Action: Please contact Rep. Hosmer (The Honorable Craig Hosmer, House post Office, Jefferson City MO 65101; phone 573-751-9474), thanking him for his leadership in both crafting the compromise on this bill last session and for his artful shepherding of the bill through to passage this session. Congratulations are in order to him for his work. Also thank Rep. Bill Boucher (same address, 573-751-7335) for being the lead sponsor with HB 369, again identical to Hosmer’s HB 265.It would also be worthwhile, to thank Rep. Dolan (573-751-4964) and Rep. Lograsso (573-751-1487) for their visible and vocal support of the bill. Dolan especially didn’t have to speak out. (Please do so especially if you live in either of their districts or ask other folks you know who live in the districts, to do so).
SB 192, the companion bill (sponsored by Sen. John Schneider) in the Senate which would also disallow death sentencing defendants who are mentally retarded. There were a couple noteworthy developments within the past week, namely, last Wednesday, Sen. David Klarich agreed to drop his extremely limiting language, defining mental retardation. The new language defines the condition as "significantly subaverage intellectual functioning with continual extensive related deficits and limitations in two or more adaptive behaviors." (About a half dozen behaviors are listed). It’s language much more in line with Rep. Hosmer’s bill. Thankfully, he agreed to drop from the description, the more restrictive wording- "pervasive" and "systemic", which he had added.
Sen. Klarich, later in the day, sadly added the language of SB 192 as an amendment onto his own bill SB 267, an amalgam of revisions of about three dozen various criminal and civil procedures . Most of the revisions seem somewhat innocuous at first blush, but from our perspective this is clearly not the best vehicle to move the MR issue along. Larry Weber with the Catholic Conference is thankfully working with Rep. Hosmer to map out some alternative strategy to make the overwhelmingly-passed HB 265 the main vehicle-- perhaps as a bill which will go to a Senate committee (as a House bill for consideration) to be perfected then passed by the full Senate. We would like to avoid the "Christmas tree" legislative approach (of having our bill considered with a bundle full of other measures, some we’d support, others we’d likely condemn) and have the bill passed on its own merit. Once more the strong passage of the House bill should help us get to that point.
Note: At this time there’s no need for action on our part. Behind the scenes actions are best left to legislators we trust with monitoring and gentle suggestions by folks like Larry and Mike Hoey of the Catholic Conference.
HB 68 Measure to impose a two-year moratorium on executions. As noted at the last Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty meeting, the bill (again sponsored by Rep. Chris Liese) clearly and sadly stands no chance of passage. For those unaware, I conducted a straw poll among members on the House Criminal Law Committee and found just one of the 13 members supportive of a moratorium. We decided by consensus at the MADP meeting to at least support a commission being set up to study the death penalty in Missouri over the next two years—even if it would be decoupled from a moratorium on executions. Among the committee members, I found all but one said they’d support the formation of a commission.
At the MADP meeting, we reluctantly reasoned a commission would at least help make public with official data, various disparities/inequities in the imposition of the death penalty and in executions. Such a development would at least be extremely useful in furthering the cause of abolition. We were unsure what more we could hope for out of this legislature. To deny this opportunity (i.e. at least having a commission formed), we figured, may also give opponents of a moratorium/death penalty supporters reason to squash future legislation we might try to advance next session. They could say we dashed the chance to at least study the issue, perhaps because we were afraid official scrutiny would show there are no problems with the system. We also noted that Rep. Liese told us he graciously sees himself as our tool (if you will) toward ending the death penalty. He agreed to do whatever we felt would be best for the cause. Thus he reminded Rita and I, if the commission were ultimately crafted by legislators as an entity that seemed as though it would do more harm than good, he would be quite willing to withdraw HB 68 (with the commission and sans the moratorium) from consideration for passage this session. It was really up to us, he said.
Last Tuesday, with the Richardson execution still pending, Rita and I attended the Criminal Law’s executive session. No vote was taken on the original HB 68 (again defeat was a foregone conclusion), but Rep. Hosmer brought up the issue of a revised HB 68 without a moratorium (as he agreed to do as requested by Rep. Liese after he got the go-ahead-- at least for now-- from us). In the end, the committee voted 11-2 to mark “Do Pass” HB 68 (again, the moratorium-less version). Only Rep. Tom Burcham (R-Farmington) and Rep. Bob Mayer (R-Dexter) voted against the bill.
A couple rather ugly amendments however, were passed onto the measure, one by Rep. Luann Ridgeway. She wanted to make sure that at least three murder victims’ family members would be added to the commission-- one each appointed by the director of the state police chief association, the state prosecutors association and a crime victims association,…In other words, individuals who almost certainly would strongly support the death penalty. Such a move undercuts any effort to impartially and fairly review the application of the death penalty. Rep. Jon Dolan’s amendment would direct the commission to also consider the family and community impact of each murder (a rather challenging and subjective task). Those measures were added with just one dissenting vote. Rep. Dolan offered a second one, which thankfully got dumped. It would have required the commission to view crime scene photographs of the homicides (obviously presented to try to incite and appeal to the emotions of commissioners, while perhaps thus encouraging an overlooking or glossing over of inequities of the death-penalty process).
SB 55 There’s been no movement on Sen. Mary Bland’s bill to place a moratorium on executions. A week or so ago, I conducted a headcount of the members of the Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and found that only two of the eight members supported the concept; the chair, Sen. Morris Westfall (R-Halfway) is strongly opposed to a moratorium. Thus, there seems to be little reason to push for a committee vote to get the bill moved to the full Senate for consideration. In the next few weeks we’ll reconsider our strategy for trying to advance the bill, perhaps in a manner similar to the compromise with HB 68.