State senator seeks to ban death penalty

Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2000 | 2:58 a.m.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, said legislation to ban capital punishment is being drafted at his request.

"The state should not be in the business of killing folks," Neal said. "We should be in the business of protecting lives. The death penalty is not a deterrent to killing; it's only a deterrent to those who have killed."

The measure has the support of Catholic Church leaders, among others, said Neal, who has sought similar legislation in past sessions without success.

A related measure - one that would impose a moratorium on executions in Nevada - is expected to be introduced in the Assembly, Neal said. The issue is sure to provoke strong debate in the 2001 session, he said.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has rejected the idea of a moratorium on executions in Nevada.

Nevada is one of 38 states with the death penalty after reinstating capital punishment in 1977. Since then, eight men have been executed, the last in 1999.

Eighty-nine men and one woman are on Nevada's death row. At least two could face lethal injection in 2001.

A nationwide Harris poll in July found 64 percent of people supported the death penalty, down from 75 percent in 1997.

David Sarnowski, chief deputy attorney general of the Criminal Justice Division, said while he has not seen the language in Neal's bill, his office would contest the abolishment of capital punishment.

Questions about the use of the death penalty in Nevada have grown more frequent in recent years and were raised again in January when a new trial was ordered for John Mazzan, who had been on death row since 1979 for the killing of an acquaintance.

Mazzan, who faces a new trial in Reno next year, won his appeal after the Supreme Court concluded that Washoe County prosecutors withheld evidence at his 1979 trial that could have helped in his defense.