Bill banning executions of retarded passes

Monday, May 12, 2003 | 9:09 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A bill that would ban the execution of mentally retarded people has been passed by the Senate and is on its way to Gov. Kenny Guinn for approval.

Two more bills that would change capital punishment laws are up for final passage in the Assembly Tuesday.

Without debate Friday, the Senate approved Assembly Bill 15, which prohibits a death sentence for a person who is mentally retarded.

In a case where the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the defense must file a motion before trial to have the District Court judge declare the accused mentally retarded.

The bill complies with a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that mentally retarded persons cannot be sentenced to death.

In other pending legislation regarding death penalty cases, the Assembly is scheduled to vote on Assembly Bill 13 that would have juries, rather than a panel of three judges, decide if a person who has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder should be sentenced to death or life in prison. If a District Court jury is unable to reach a decision in a death penalty case, the presiding judge would sentence the accused to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Also up for passage in the Assembly is Assembly Bill 16. That bill would allow a person sentenced to death to request a DNA test to confirm he or she is the killer. The bill gives the District Court judge the right to stay any execution until the analysis of the genetic marker evidence is analyzed.

In some cases in other states, DNA evidence has exonerated people on death row.

If AB13 and AB16 are passed, they go to the Senate.

The Legislature has approved another bill involving the death penalty and sent it Guinn. Assembly Bill 17 would raise the rate paid to court-appointed defense attorneys in death penalty cases to $125 an hour. The current rate is $75 an hour.

The maximum fee allowed would be changed to $20,000, up from the current $12,000.

Court-appointed attorneys in other criminal cases would be paid $100 an hour, up from $75.

The bill also requires that courts appoint a team of lawyers, not just one, to represent defendants in death penalty cases.