Homicide bill dead on arrival

It was interesting this week to see two particular stories on the same day: one on the merits of term limits for lawmakers, the other on a freshman legislator who is sponsoring a bill calling for the death penalty for those convicted of domestic-related homicide.

A couple of recent studies regarding the effects of our term limit law found that our Legislature is “underexperienced and overworked,” and that term limits have slowed the lawmaking process.

A case in point is the latest death penalty bill being proposed by a freshman lawmaker.

I’m sure that Republican Sen. Jonathan Courtney of Sanford had only the most honorable intentions when he decided to sponsor this death penalty bill. He certainly hasn’t been the first lawmaker to give it a go, but it’s another example of the lawmaking system getting bogged down with bills that are dead before the ink is dry.

Lawmakers before him have tried to reinstate the death penalty for those who kill police officers and children, and both were soundly rejected.

I don’t know whether Sen. Courtney researched states that do embrace the death penalty, but if so, he would have learned that the killing of a spouse or a girlfriend or boyfriend usually does not qualify as a capital punishment case.

Usually those murders are considered crimes of passion and do not meet the level of egregiousness needed for a death sentence.

In 2002 my sister-in-law was shot to death by her ex-husband in Florida in front of her two children, ages 9 and 11. The family was told in no uncertain terms that as horrendous as the crime was, it was not a capital offense because the homicide stemmed from a domestic situation.

I’m not a fan of the death penalty, but I found that reasoning pathetic and archaic.

Maine Sen. Courtney told a reporter that the time had come to “try something stronger or more forceful” because domestic violence remains a big problem despite efforts to prevent it.

It has been proved that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent. The bottom line is that people who kill most often are not thinking about the consequences of their actions, whether those consequences are the death penalty or 50 years in prison.

If Courtney truly wants to make a difference in the insidious arena of domestic violence, he should get behind the forth-coming recommendations of the Advisory Council to Prevent Domestic and Sexual Violence.

The council was supposed to have submitted its recommendations to Gov. John Baldacci next week, but that has been postponed for a month.

It’s expected that the council will call for improving computerized criminal and court records so that police officers, judges and bail commissioners can actually access a person’s criminal history before deciding whether to release him on bail.

What a concept that is, huh?

It also will call for hiring a statewide domestic violence coordinator to be a constant state-level presence and to oversee domestic violence prevention programs.

Sen. Courtney is right that it’s time for the state to get tough. The council, made up of exactly the people who know how to get tough, is about to tell the governor how to do it. He should listen, and so should the Legislature.

The proposed death penalty bill had not been printed as of Wednesday. The state should save the ink.