Bill to End Nevada’s Death Penalty Proposed

A bill to end the rarely used death penalty in Nevada, is circulating around the legislature. State senator James Ohrehshall and assemblyman Ozzie Fumo have introduced AB149. Similar measures died in the last legislative session. Ohrenschall says the death penalty is not a deterrent, but is a burden on taxpayers. It rarely proceeds smoothly to an execution, even when the killer requests it. Nevada’s last execution was in 2006. Fumo is a Las Vegas defense attorney who estimates the average cost of mandatory appeals for death row inmates at $500,000, and said the state spends a billion “warehousing” people in jails and prisons before, during and after death penalty trials.