Nevada Senate panel hosts death penalty debate

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- A dozen religious leaders and other activists voiced emotional support Wednesday for state Sen. Joe Neal's proposal to do away with the death penalty in Nevada, while prosecutors took up the opposing side of the debate.

"We have to forge a new ethics where we defend life, and not allow the state to take that life," Neal, D-North Las Vegas, told Senate Judiciary members during a hearing on SB217. "When we do that, we become better people, and I think a better society."

He won backing from a cross-section of Nevada religious leaders, including representatives of Lutheran, Catholic, Episcopalian and other churches and religious organizations opposed to the death penalty.

Neal's bill would entirely abolish capital punishment and reduce the sentence of those currently on Nevada's death row to life without possibility of parole. It would repeal 33 sections of Nevada law.

Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, a co-sponsor of the bill, said administering the death penalty costs the state more than ordering convicted killers to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Dan Greco, chief Washoe County deputy district attorney, said that claim was overstated. He added that Nevada did not face worries of executing the innocent as identified in other states like Illinois.

Ben Graham of the Nevada District Attorneys Association agreed. Graham said he once opposed the death penalty but is convinced Nevada's system works.

Kerry Le, a 22-year-old Reno social worker, choked back tears while testifying in support of the measure. Le recounted her 43-year-old uncle Pat Sheen's murder three years ago in Las Vegas, saying his live-in girlfriend shot him in the head and robbed him before fleeing to China.

Le said that though the woman would be eligible for the death penalty, "I would not wish for another loss to result from this tragedy."

"My uncle may have lost his life tragically, but he would not have wanted for his family to seek vengeance," Le said. "The death penalty does not work for me. It does not bring me closure, and does not bring him back."

Neal's legislation has come before the Legislature several times before and been rejected, and Anderson acknowledged after Wednesday's hearing that it was unlikely to pass.

Neal said recent anti-terrorism efforts also make it less likely to win support. But he pledged that no matter the outcome in this session, he'd bring up the proposal "again and again and again."

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, was the only Senate Judiciary member to immediately weigh in on the measure.

He said he had struggled with his support of the death penalty, and welcomed the debate, but would vote against Neal's bill.

"There are millions of Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, Mormons, Episcopalians and Assembly people and people of faith who feel there is a purpose for the death penalty," Nolan said.

The panel took no action on SB217, also co-sponsored by Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno. The bill is separate from 17 recommendations from a legislative subcommittee that examined the state's death penalty system following the 2001 session.

The subcommittee's recommendations include banning the execution of the mentally retarded and abolition of three-judge sentencing panels, in line with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Bills including such proposals have advanced through an Assembly panel in recent weeks.