Death penalty backers in Senate concede they can’t stop ban

Monday, April 16, 2001 | 11:31 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Senate supporters of the death penalty concede that they don't have enough votes to block a bill imposing a two-year moratorium on executions.

Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, said he would propose an amendment Tuesday to Senate Bill 254 that would eliminate the moratorium and allow executions to go forward.

McGinness, however, and his supporters have gathered only eight votes from the 21 senators for his amendment, which would allow executions to take place while a study of capital punishment is being conducted during the next two years.

If the McGinness amendment fails, the bill would head to the Senate, where it would likely pass and be sent to the Assembly.

Meanwhile, Gov. Kenny Guinn is looking for legal ways to postpone the execution of Sebastian Bridges, set for Saturday at the state prison in Carson City. Bridges has rejected efforts by the federal public defender's office to seek a stay of the execution so that further appeals can be launched.

Bridges was convicted in Las Vegas of the killing of Hunter Blatchford, the lover of his estranged wife. Bridges told police it was an accident.

A spokesman for the governor said Guinn does not want to allow an execution to go forward if there is a chance a bill for a moratorium would reach his desk a day later.

Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, suggested Friday that SB254 be amended to allow death row inmates who want to die to be executed. He said he hated to think those cases would be held in abeyance. No formal amendment was presented by Amodei.

The bill, which began as a repeal of the death penalty law, was changed in the Senate Judiciary Committee to call for the moratorium and a two-year legislative study on capital punishment.

The study would look at the race, sex and economic status of those who face the death penalty; the cases of those younger than 18 or who are mentally retarded; the competency of the defense lawyers; whether jurors had a proper understanding of the law; whether capital punishment is a deterrent against murder; the costs of prosecuting capital cases and their subsequent appeals; and current policy on DNA testing.

The bill would permit juries to impose death sentences, and appeals from death row inmates would continue through the courts during the two-year period, but no executions would be scheduled.

Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, said he wants to maintain the status quo for two years while the study is being pursued. There are 92 people on death row, he said. He compared the two-year moratorium to the long gaps between executions in the past.

Eight people have been put to death since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. There were two five-year periods in which no executions were carried out and one three-year and one two-year period between the times people were put to death.

James said the committee received testimony that evidence exists there is racial bias in imposing the death penalty, and juries are often confused by instructions and in deciding on aggravating factors that would warrant the death penalty.

Of the past eight people executed, six were white males.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said he was afraid the moratorium would be seen as "first step for doing away with the death penalty." The majority of Nevadans support capital punishment, he said.

A prosecutor for 18 years, Raggio said there has never been a case in Nevada in which an innocent person was put to death. He said death sentences have been reversed on legal grounds. He added that the system works to protect the rights of those found guilty of murder, some of whom have been on death row for 20 years while they pursue appeals in the court system.

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said he was almost beaten to death 38 years ago by five men, one of them Patrick McKenna, who ended up on death row for a Las Vegas killing.

"I have had vengeance in my heart for 38 years," he said. Still, he supported the study "so the truth may come out" that some men on death row may be innocent.

Several senators said they support the death penalty but voted for the moratorium and the study.