Debating the Death Penalty: Capital punishment divides legislators, but not along party lines.

• Author: Widgery, Amber

Unlike other controversial topics, there is no party line when it comes to the death penalty.

Since 2015, 25 states have enacted more than 60 new laws addressing capital punishment, from expanding or limiting aggravating factors and modifying execution methods to changing trial procedures or repealing the practice altogether.

At NCSL's 2019 Legislative Summit in Nashville, a panel of lawmakers convened to discuss capital punishment and the beliefs that have influenced the positions they've taken on the issue. Utah Representative Paul Ray (R) and Colorado Senator Rhonda Fields (D) support the death penalty, while New Hampshire Representative Renny Cushing (D) and Wyoming Representative Jared Olsen (R) do not. The panel's diversity of opinion reflected the lawmakers' deeply personal life experiences more than their party affiliation.

Washington Representative Roger Goodman (D) moderated the discussion.

Goodman: What is the status of capital punishment in your state?

Ray: Utah has only nine people on death row and one of the highest bars in the nation to get there. No death row inmate has ever made an appeal on the grounds of innocence. In three of the last four years, repeal legislation has failed. In fact, each time there is a new bill to repeal the death penalty, we actually expand the death penalty a little bit. As you see from the panel here today, this isn't a party issue. What I explain to people is that this issue is personal, and you have to let people come to their own decisions.

Cushing: New Hampshire was actually the first legislative body in this century to repeal the death penalty in 2001, but the legislation was vetoed. We finally completed the task [last] year, on May 31. The more New Hampshire legislators learned about capital punishment, the less there was for them to like about it. They concluded that New Hampshire can live without it. In New Hampshire, a substantial number of people don't trust the government to collect taxes or plow snow, so the last thing they want to do is give it the power to kill. The repeal effort united people who don't often come together on issues. And at the core of this effort were the voices of family members of murder victims who recognize that capital punishment doesn't accomplish the one thing they want it to, which is to bring back their loved one.

Fields: Right now, we have capital punishment in Colorado. The reason I support it is because of my own personal story: Of the three people...