Panel questions state’s death penalty statute

Erin Neff

Friday, April 19, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

A panel studying possible reforms to Nevada's death penalty was told Thursday that tourists might stay away from Las Vegas if the state continues to allow children and mentally retarded citizens to be executed.

Unlike most countries and other states, current Nevada law permits a sentence of death to be imposed on children as young as 16 and on adults with IQs below 70.

"It is wrong, it is immoral," said Richard Siegel, who is studying the death penalty at New York University's School of Law while on sabbatical from his job as a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Siegel called it a "no-brainer" to change state law permitting the execution of children and the mentally retarded after noting increasing international calls for economic boycotts of states or nations which have such regulations.

"There's growing talk of 'Don't go to Nevada as long as they have it,' " threatened Siegel, who is also president of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

His testimony came during the fifth meeting of the Legislative Commission's Subcommittee to Study the Death Penalty and Related DNA Testing. The committee has the power to draft legislation and will make recommendations to the full Legislature next year. During the 2001 Legislature, Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, introduced legislation banning the execution of the mentally retarded. The measure passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly, but didn't clear the Republican-controlled Senate.

Other reforms, including a proposal prohibiting the execution of anyone under 16, also failed during the 2001 Legislature.

Leslie, who chairs the study panel, said it is her hope that the group of lawmakers can reach consensus on certain reforms such as banning the execution of the mentally retarded and children.

On Thursday the panel heard a litany of reasons why both children and the mentally retarded often cannot comprehend the magnitude of their actions.

Law enforcement representatives objected to that line of testimony, arguing that the criminal justice system is set up to protect those incapable of understanding their actions from being sentenced to death.

"There are a number of escape valves," Richard Gammick, Washoe County District Attorney, said.

Gammick cited jury trials, mitigating factors considered in the punishment phase of a trial and post-conviction relief mechanisms as ways youthful or retarded defendants can plea their case.

Michael Pescetta, assistant federal public defender, disagreed by using the example of one of his best-known clients -- Thomas Nevius -- who spent 14 years in prison before anyone found a record of an IQ test taken when he was younger. Nevius is on death row.

The state Pardons Board is considering granting Nevius' request for a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Additional testing is under way to determine his mental state.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer on a similar case in Virginia -- one that could overturn the laws in 32 states, including Nevada, allowing execution of the mentally retarded.

The Illinois Commission on the Death Penalty recently released its recommended reforms of capital punishment in that state after a sweeping two-year review. One of that group's key recommendations is banning the execution of the mentally retarded.