Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

With eye to cost, death penalty study sought

Lawmaker sees moratorium as a way to help with state’s budget crisis

As lawmakers examine ways to trim the state budget, Assemblyman Bernie Anderson thinks the death penalty should get a second look.

“There is an enormous cost to the state,” said Anderson, D-Sparks, chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

It includes additional cost during the trials, constant appeals by convicts on death row and “if they put up a fight, they are there forever,” he said.

Anderson is proposing the state impose a moratorium on the death penalty while a legislative study is carried out. He has asked that a bill calling for the study be drafted for the 2009 Legislature. The study would look at the cost of the death penalty and whether it’s applied justly in Nevada. The study would update one carried out a few years ago, Anderson said.

There are 82 men on Nevada’s death row at the state prison in Ely. One example of the length of time they await execution is Edward T. Wilson, 50, who was sentenced to death in December 1979 for killing an undercover Reno police officer.

Anderson said he doesn’t know of any instances of a person being wrongly executed in Nevada.

“I don’t think we have executed anybody who didn’t deserve it,” he said.

•••

The $1.1 million check from Metro Police to pay a disputed health insurance premium finally arrived in Carson City last week.

The check, dated Dec. 12, didn’t arrive in the mail at the state’s Public Employees Benefit Program until Dec. 22.

Carson City is about 450 miles from Las Vegas.

The delay had prompted a state official to say police were suffering from “the check is in the mail” syndrome.

The money partially resolves a five-year dispute over whether Metro should provide a subsidy for some of its officers who had retired and joined the state’s health insurance plan. A law was passed requiring Metro to pay the cost.

Leslie Johnstone, executive officer of the state insurance program, said Metro still owes the state $600,000.

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie are trying to work out a settlement.

•••

To improve public access to the courts, a new statewide rule to allow telephone and video appearances in some civil proceedings will take effect March 1.

The Nevada Supreme Court, at the request of Chief Justice Mark Gibbons, has adopted a rule permitting the courts to use the teleconferencing equipment during some proceedings.

“To improve access to the courts and reduce litigation costs, courts shall permit parties to the extent feasible, to appear by communications equipment at appropriate conferences, hearings, and proceedings in civil cases,” the new rule states.

Personal appearances will still be required during trials, hearings at which witnesses are expected to testify and hearings on temporary restraining orders.

A court may enter into a contract with a private company to provide teleconferencing with the party using the equipment to be charged “a reasonable fee,” according to the new rule.

Judges may still require appearances in person at any civil hearing.

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