HB84

HB84 R. Davis and J. Petroski Death Penalty Don't. Execute. Any. Truly. Honest or Innocent People, or D.E.A.T.H. Purpose What our bill is trying to accomplish is to stop the execution or conviction of innocent people. It is trying to stop the accidental execution or conviction of innocent people. What this means is that it is going to try and help develop new technology to determine whether or not an accused person is actually innocent or guilty before receiving the death penalty, or being sentenced to prison. We are also going to try and solve the problem of the wait time on death row. Some people who are sentenced to the death penalty have to wait for over 10 years or more before actually being executed. This could keep the accused from even thinking about trying to do anything because they know that they're going to die no matter what. A last problem that our bill will try to solve is the method of the death penalty. The two most common methods right now are death by lethal injection and death by electrocution. We are going to try and make it so that only one of these methods remain dependent on their costs and which one seems more constitutional. Eligibility Our bill will apply to anyone who is being tried for the death penalty. Tems and Benefits Our bill is going to work by raising and spending money to develop new technology to help really make sure that whoever is being tried for the death penalty is actually guilty and not being framed or accidentally put on trial because of a case of mistaken identity or identity theft by the person who actually committed the crime if either of those scenarios happen to be the case. We are going to try and keep 10,000 people who are wrongly convicted each year, from being wrongly convicted or executed. Then, we are also going to try and help make the wait time for people who are on death row shorter. Sometimes people on death row have to wait ten years or longer, that can make them not even want to try and reform themselves because all they can think about is whether or not they will be executed. The new technology will hopefully help decrease that time. That will also decrease the cost of taking care of them while they're on death row. We are also going to try and decide on one method of the death penalty. We are going to compare the costs of each one and also see whether or not we think they're both constitutional or if one seems less constitutional than the other. Many people have problems with both, but it seems that more people object to lethal injection. People object to it more because sometimes it requires multiple injections and it can cause a slow and painful death, which some people count as being cruel and unusual punishment. We are also going to compare how much each one costs on average per year and that may also help influence our decision on which one to keep. Fiscal Impact We estimate that our bill will cost around 10-15 million dollars.