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: Grits for Breakfast

On expanding the death penalty, budgets, and unfunded mandates

State Sen. Joan Huffman has a bill up (SB 377) tomorrow in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that would expand the option for prosecutors to pursue capital punishment in cases where a child under ten years old is murdered. Presently prosecutors can seek the death penalty when the victim is under six years old, as well as under a litany of other circumstances. I'm sure testimony on behalf of the bill will be emotional, and there's a legitimate debate to be had about what is the "right" punishment for people who kill children: Whether death or life imprisonment, for example, best exemplifies "justice."But I want to set aside those hot-button questions for the time being and focus instead on the predictable, politically motivated lie in the fiscal note that "No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated" from this bill...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 21, 2011 (boomark / email).