Capital punishment’s future in Nevada
The current U.S. election has been focused on a variety of major issues, ranging from immigration to gun rights. While the death penalty has not been at the forefront, candidate Donald Trump’s decisive rhetoric reveals the issues’ tension. He has once said, “Anybody killing a police officer, death penalty, it’s going to happen. Okay?”
California, Nebraska, and Oklahoma will not be voting solely on the fate of those who kill police officers, however, but on the death penalty as a whole. California has two propositions, 62 and 66. Proposition 62, if passed, would result in a repeal of the death penalty. Proposition 66, on the other hand, would speed up the process by limiting the number of appeals death row inmates can seek, NPR reports.
“NVCADP is prepared to lead an effort to end Nevada’s death penalty by repealing it from our law.”
Nevada may not be voting on the death penalty this year, but that does not stop speculation about how executions will be handled in the future.
“Executions are at an all-time low, new death sentences have also fallen off significantly, and public opinion polls show declining support for capital punishment,” said Nancy Hart, president of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty (NVCADP). “NVCADP is prepared to lead an effort to end Nevada’s death penalty by repealing it from our law.”
KTVN news reports that the last Nevada execution was in 2006, of rapist and murderer Daryl Mack, who volunteered to escape death row. Currently, there are 80 men on the Silver State’s death row, the last of which, Brianna Denison’s murderer James Biela, was convicted in 2010.
The non-profit, deathpenaltyinfo.org, reports that California has 720 men and 21 women on death row, Nebraska has 10 men, and Oklahoma has 46 men and one woman. California’s murder rate is 4.8 per 100,000, Nebraska’s is 3.3 per 100,000, and Oklahoma’s is 6 per 100,000. Nevada’s: 6.2 per 100,000.
But Nevada will not be performing executions any time soon, apparently. The Influence recently reported that, despite having spent $858,000 on a new execution chamber, the Silver State is unable to obtain the necessary lethal injection drugs due to pharmaceutical companies and their distributors refusing to provide states with lethal injection drugs. This is a result of activist pressures. Currently, Nevada legislators are working to find a company to provide the drugs.
The legal process also tends to lengthen the execution process. According to Bruce Hahn, felony prosecutor for the local district attorney’s office, this is a prominent issue.
“The most significant issue for the victim survivors that my office represents is the long and protracted delay through numerous state and federal appeals and post- conviction avenues, before the jury’s decision is ever available to be carried out,” Hahn said. “Nevadans through our Legislature have asked for the right to consider meting out a death sentence for the worst types of first degree murderers.”
When defendants, or the accused, are sentenced to death, they are automatically given a certain number of appeals that they must waive or use before they can be executed. This inevitably lengthens the process, leading inmates to remain on death row for upwards of 20 years. According to KTVN, three of Nevada’s death row inmates have been there since 1981, and one since 1979.
This is why lawmaker and journalist Pat Hickey voted against the construction of the new execution chamber, twice, in the Legislative sessions of 2013 and 2015.
“My reasoning and justification was this; if we are no longer going to carry out the death penalty, what is the point?” Hickey said. “Legal maneuvering has prevented most death sentences from being carried out. In that sense, Nevada has in effect, a kind of unofficial moratorium on actual executions.”
Historically, Nevada has been a state that is reluctant to dole out capital punishment. Since 1976, the year in which the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S., Nevada has carried out 12 executions, while Oklahoma has had 112. Similarly, California has had only 13, although Nevada’s population is nearly 36 million less than California’s. According to Hahn, this is due to DA offices like Washoe County’s tendency to be cautious when deciding on whether or not to use execution.
“This office considers the death penalty option an extreme but appropriate remedy for the Washoe County community in few cases with egregious facts surrounding the crime and the murderer,” Hahn said “Historically it is rare that this office has sought to provide the jury with the option. Washoe County juries have historically agreed with this office’s recommendation to them for a death sentence. David Middleton, Robert McConnell, Pedro Rodriguez (twice), Tamir Hamilton, James Biela are examples.”
“With violence and capital crimes in places like Las Vegas on the rise, I doubt you would see a softening of views toward a more compassionate or reconciliatory mood…”
For Nevada’s death penalty, many are uncertain as to what the future holds. As shown by Trump’s former statement, it is a tense issue.
“There are understandably strong opinions on both sides of the issue, as perhaps there should be considering the finality of the penalty,” said Michelle Bays, supervising investigator for the Washoe County DA’s office.
Pat Hickey, having worked as a reporter in Nevada for 25 years and observed the lawmaking system, believes that support for an end to capital punishment would be a “heavy lift politically.”
“With violence and capital crimes in places like Las Vegas on the rise, I doubt you would see a softening of views toward a more compassionate or reconciliatory mood, on behalf of Nevada voters — who politicians take their cues from,” Hickey said.
Nevadans may not be voting on the death penalty in the current election, but there could be a related question on future ballots, Hahn concedes. It might not be happening right now, but Nevada voters should start asking themselves: where do I stand?
