On February 17, after more than three hours of sometimes-heated...

On February 17, after more than three hours of sometimes-heated debate, a state Senate committee struck down 7-4 a bill that would have abolished the death penalty in Indiana. It was the first time a lengthy death penalty debate took place in the Senate since the General Assembly reinstated capital punishment in 1978. Many of those who favored the bill's sponsor, Sen. Morris Mills, R-Indianapolis, were clergy from a wide array of denominations, including Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran and Jewish. A bill to raise the minimum age for the death penalty from 16 to 18 also failed in committee. Indiana is one of four states which allows a judge to overrule a jury's recommendation of a life sentence and impose a death sentence (along with Alabama, Delaware and Florida). Another bill to bar the death penalty unless the jury unanimously recommends a death sentence was defeated after passing out of committee. A proposal to establish a form of the racial justice act also failed to pass.