Why Are Rhode Island Democrats Pushing a Bill That Could Send Some Drug Dealers to Prison For Life?
A bill that would allow judges to hold drug dealers responsible for fatal overdoses is making its way through Rhode Island’s legislature, but it faces strong opposition from medical professionals and addiction treatment advocates. The legislation is sponsored by a Democrat in the state’s House and Senate.
“Kristen’s Law” is named after Kristen Coutu, a 29-year-old woman who died of an overdose in 2014. Coutu thought she had purchased heroin from 23-year-old Aaron Andrade, but it turned out to contain pure fentanyl. Last year Andrade received a 40-year prison sentence, with 20 years to serve, after he pleaded no contest to second degree murder. Andrade was prosecuted under Rhode Island’s felony murder law, which addresses killings that occur while a felony is taking place. Assistant Attorney General Jim Baum said that Kristen’s Law will make it easier to prosecute individuals like Andrade, as overdose deaths actually take place after the initial felony is committed. “There are grey areas,” Baum told a local news station, “This provides a more certain prosecution, more certain arrest with respect to drug-induced homicides.”
Not only would Kristen’s Law make it easier for prosecutors to charge individuals with drug-induced homicides, but it would also allow judges to hand down life sentences to those found guilty of drug-induced homicide. A drug-induced homicide law for juvenile victims already exists in Rhode Island; it comes with a mandatory life sentence.
Kristen’s Law was introduced by Hanna Gallo, a Democratic member of the Rhode Island State Senate, on behalf of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, who is also a Democrat. On May 30, the bill passed the Senate, and now Kilmartin is working with the state’s House of Representatives to develop companion legislation. That legislation is also sponsored by a Democrat, Speaker Nicholas Mattiello. It has already cleared the House Judiciary Committee, and will be voted on by the entire House this week.
Annajane Yolken is the Executive Director of Protect Families First, a local nonprofit that advocates for drug policies that promote community health and safety. “This bill is actually incredibly vague,” she told The Digest, “and it gives prosecutors the power to criminalize low-level drug dealers. We’ve already had decades of punitive policies and it’s clearly a failed strategy, which is why we need more public health solutions and evidence-based prevention.”
Local groups are also concerned that Kristen’s Law could impact the state’s Good Samaritan Act, which provides legal protections for individuals who request medical assistance after an individual overdoses. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on the bill, ACLU of Rhode Island Executive Director Steven Brown explained how the existing law could be impacted: “If without the Good Samaritan law before, we knew that people were hesitant to pick up the phone because of potential consequences, how much greater [is the hesitation] when they know there’s a law specifically dealing with this issue that provides for a life sentence if they are found to have contributed to the person’s death because of the drugs they provided?”
Substance abuse expert Lisa Peterson told the Committee that the law will inevitably lead to an increased prison population. “It makes sense that we want to do something,” she told the committee, “but our system is supposed to be one of justice, not revenge….This legislation, although well-intentioned, will only lead to more of our family members, friends and loved ones being removed from our lives, before they themselves could achieve recovery.”
The concerns of local groups are backed by a report put out last year by the Drug Policy Alliance, which found that twenty states have drug-induced homicide laws on their books. Since there is no database of such crimes, the Drug Policy Alliance tracked media mentions of such prosecutions. They found 363 articles referencing drug-induced homicides in 2011, and 1,178 in 2016. That is a 300% increase in five years, despite no proof that the policies are doing anything to lower the amount of drug overdoses. In fact, a recent CDC report shows that overdose deaths are rising throughout the entire country.
If this drug-induced homicide bill passes the Rhode Island House of Representatives, medical professionals have called on Governor Gina Raimondo (also a Democrat) to veto the legislation. However, Raimondo has expressed her support for the law. “The first course of action to deal with the opioid and drug crisis is prevention and treatment….and we’re doing a lot around that,’’ she said earlier this month. “Having said that, this is a crisis. We’ve lost over 1,000 people to drug overdoses. This law has been amended. So it doesn’t require a life sentence but it’s an option for the judge….I think the judges need to have this discretion because this could save lives.”
