Death penalty bill passes committee

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 | 10:38 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A bill that prohibits the death penalty for people who were younger than 18 when they committed murder cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning without discussion.

Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, the committee chairman, said there was no need to discuss the bill since the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled it is illegal to sentence underage criminals to death.

On March 1, the Supreme Court ruled that a death sentence upon a person for a crime commited while he or she was under the age of 18 violates the Constitution. That decision invalidated the Nevada law that allowed the death penalty for anyone older than 16.

Michael Pescetta, assistant federal public defender who is an expert in capital punishment cases, said that immediately after the Supreme Court ruling prosecutors in Nevada stopped seeking the death penalty for underage defendants.

The Senate committee sent Assembly Bill 6 to the floor of the Senate without recommendation. Amodei said he expected it to pass and go to Gov. Kenny Guinn for his signature.

The only person on death row in Nevada who will be affected will be Michael Domingues. He was convicted for killing of Arjin Chanel Pechpo and her 4-year-old son, Jonathan Smith in their home during an attempted robbery in 1993. Domingues was 16-years-old at the time. The bill provides that Domingues' sentence will be changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Domingues, 28, is in the Ely State Prison.