Posted on 08/04/2005 5:26:50 PM PDT by crazyhorse691
The Oregon House rejects a change to a bill that would apply the death penalty for killing pregnant women
SALEM -- It appears the 2005 Legislature will end without an agreement on whether the death penalty should apply to someone who murders a pregnant woman -- or whether the death of her fetus should be counted as a second murder.
The House on Wednesday refused to approve a Senate-passed amendment to House Bill 3037, which would expand the death penalty to include the crime of murder of a pregnant woman.
Instead, the House voted 50-8 to send the bill to a conference committee, where disagreements are normally negotiated. But Senate Democrat and House Republican leaders said Wednesday they doubted that conference committee would meet.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach, said HB3037 as amended is unacceptable.
"Oregon law should protect both the pregnant woman and her unborn child," he said. "The only reason to increase the penalty is that second life."
Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland, said she would ask the Senate president not to appoint Senate representatives to a conference committee.
"We're not going to have a further vote on the death penalty on the Senate floor," Brown said, referring to an emotional debate that senators had Monday.
Separate but similar legislation that the House passed Wednesday also looks to have little chance of becoming law.
The House voted 35-23 to add to a Senate-passed bill, Senate Bill 548, language defining a fetus as a human being and expanding the state's homicide statute to include a fetus harmed as a result of the murder or assault of a pregnant woman.
Opponents say language establishing a fetus as a human being could someday be used to outlaw abortion.
The debate has percolated among lawmakers all year, with both abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups working to defend their interests but wary of publicly supporting or opposing any bill.
The issue comes to the Legislature following an unsolved Southern Oregon case, which prompted Brown to introduce Senate Bill 712, designed to address violence against pregnant women.
Kerry Repp of Central Point was three months pregnant when she was killed in 2002. SB712, known as the Kerry Repp Act, proposed elevated charges for a wide array of crimes against pregnant women. The bill received a public hearing but did not advance.
House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, introduced legislation establishing both the pregnant woman and her fetus as criminal victims after the high-profile murder of Laci Peterson, a California woman who was eight months pregnant.
Peterson's stepfather came to Oregon earlier in the session to ask lawmakers to endorse additional protections. About 30 states have similar fetal homicide laws.
Michelle Cole: 503-294-5143; michellecole@news.oregonian.com
The legislature probably spent too much time trying to expand the rights of Islamic terrorists who are trying to kill us. No more women's underwear on anybody's head. It's too degrading to these jugheads that aren't ashamed when they blow their testicles and intestines all over everyone.
Your tagline is so true.
I just hope we aren't getting ready to sellout our troops a second time. If the "media" and the DemocRATS get their way, we will.
Kinda makes one want to shove a newspaper/camera up the south end of a Rat headed north.
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