SALTER: #msleg pushing back hard against death penalty lawsuits

SID SALTER: Alternate execution method bill ignores larger death penalty debate

House Bill 638 is the reaction to litigation filed challenging the “cruel and unusual punishment” aspects of lethal injection. Most of those legal challenges were filed as a delaying tactic to thwart the imposition of the death penalty.

For good or ill, state legislatures are pushing back hard against those challenges with this type of legislation. The propriety of maintaining the death penalty at all is by no means part of the current discussion.

Daily Journal
2/12/17