Rhode Island hasn’t executed a criminal since 1845 and the practice has been banned since 1984, but if several state lawmakers have their way, that could soon change.

State Senator John Tassoni has introduced a bill that would allow for the Attorney General to seek the death penalty against criminals convicted of first degree murder. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators James Doyle and Frank DeVall Jr. All three lawmakers are Democrats.

The bill would exempt any defendants suffering from mental disability from the death penalty and would guarantee either capital punishment or a life sentence for those who murder someone under the age of 18.

“If any person under the age of eighteen (18) who is kidnapped in violation of section 11-26-1 by a person other than his or her natural or adopted parent dies as a direct result of the kidnapping, then the person convicted of the offense shall be guilty of murder in the first degree and shall be punished by death pursuant to chapter 12-19.4 or imprisonment for life, and the court may, pursuant to chapter 19.2 of title 12, order that that person not be eligible for parole,” the bill reads.
Unlikely to Pass

Thirty-four states currently offer the death penalty as a possibility for those convicted of murder. Vermont and New Hampshire are the two other New England states that have completely abolished capital punishment while Massachusetts only allows the federal government to prosecute capital cases in the state. Connecticut currently has 11 people on death row, with the most recent sentence coming just last month.

The last Rhode Islander to receive the death penalty was John Gordon, who was hanged in 1845. Governor Chafee posthumously pardoned Gordon last June. Capital punished was outlawed in the state in 1852 and the reinstated in 1872, where it remained in place until 1984.

Over the years, lawmakers have introduced several pieces of legislation to again legalize the death penalty to little avail, and the current legislation is just as unlikely to pass. Even if both chambers were to support reinstating capital punishment, Governor Lincoln Chafee would likely veto the bill.

Chafee made headlines last year when he refused to turn over Jason Wayne Pleau to the federal officials after he was accused of murdering 49-year-old David Main outside of a bank. If he were handed over to the feds, Pleau could have faced the death penalty.
Groups Supported Chafee

Although many Rhode Islanders were outraged by Chafee’s refusal to turn Pleau over, the New York Times praised him for opposing the death penalty. In a letter issued last fall, the ACLU, the RI State Council of Churches, Progreso Latino, Providence Youth Student Movement, and the local chapter of the American Friends Service Committee also said the Governor “acted lawfully in refusing to transfer Pleau’s custody to the federal government, which is seeking to prosecute him even though he has already agreed to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.”

Calling U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha’s efforts to have Pleau turned over “troubling,” the four-page letter to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. argued that “it is not only directly contrary to, and an undermining of, Rhode Island’s strong and long-standing policy and practice against the imposition of capital punishment, but it is fundamentally at odds with the Department of Justice’s own guidelines and standards. Under the circumstances, any continuing efforts to impose the death penalty in this case create an impression of governmental vengeance, a role ill-befitting the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the notion of what a prosecutor’s role in our criminal justice system should be.”

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