California is building a new execution chamber at the Big Q, according to the Sacramento Bee. Cramped space and poor lighting were among the problems holding up long overdue justice for the 1981 rape and murder of Terri Winchell, then 17.
The Nebraska Legislature defeated an attempt to severely limit the death penalty, three weeks after turning down an outright repeal, according to this story in the Omaha World-Herald.
In Montana, efforts to revive a failed death penalty bill were also defeated, according to this AP story.
New York AG Andrew Cuomo will not support the Queens DA's valiant attempt to get the Court of Appeals to overrule its atrocious LaValle decision and reinstate New York's death penalty, the Daily News reports. Proceedings in People v. Taylor were previously noted here.
In Missouri, the House passed a bill touted as making the death penalty "mandatory" for cop-killers, but it really does not. Nor could it, under Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280 (1976) and Roberts v. Louisiana, 431 U.S. 633 (1977).
The Missouri bill provides, "Murder of a criminal justice official in the first degree is a felony which shall be punished by death unless the trier finds that there are mitigating circumstances which are sufficient to justify a sentence of life imprisonment without eligibility for probation, parole, or conditional release except by act of the governor." That has a different tone than the general standard, which provides for a life sentence if the jury finds the mitigation outweighs the aggravation or if they just decide not to impose death under all the circumstances. It should not make a constitutional difference under the Woodson line of cases, though.
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