One Democrat Wants To Bring The Death Penalty Back To Michigan — But It Won’t Be Easy

A Democratic lawmaker wants to bring the death penalty back to the first English-speaking territory to abolish capital punishment, but experts — and one of the lawmakers he needs to convince — are skeptical at best.

Michigan state Sen. Virgil Smith (D-Detroit) introduced a Senate joint resolution last week to allow the death penalty in the case of the first-degree murder of a police or corrections officer killed in the line of duty. Michigan first banned executions in 1847; because the ban has been enshrined in the state constitution since 1963, the change would require a two-thirds majority vote in the state House and Senate as well as a majority vote by the people in the next election.

“If you kill a cop, you’re the most egregious criminal out there. … There should be no mercy at that point,” Smith told the Detroit Free Press. “These are the people at the front line trying to defend our safety, so we need to protect them as much as we can.”

According to FBI data analyzed by the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that opposes capital punishment, regions of the country that allow execution are also the least safe for law enforcement officers.

Eighteen states have abolished the death penalty. Last year, across the nation, death sentences were at a 40-year low and executions were at a 20-year low.

The Huffington Post