Wednesday, July 09, 2025
51.0°F

Effort renewed to abolish death penalty in Montana

The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years, 4 months AGO
by The Associated Press
| February 13, 2015 4:08 PM

 HELENA (AP) — Before the hearing began Friday at the Capitol on a bill that would abolish the death penalty, its sponsor Rep. Doc Moore warned the testimony would be “raw.”

The Republican form Missoula introduced House Bill 370 in the House Judiciary Committee. He told lawmakers his life has been touched by homicide four times but he thinks, as the bill states, instead of the death penalty people should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“I couldn’t imagine a worst fate than being locked up all my life,” Moore said.

Other supporters said the death penalty is expensive and using it shows that killing is a legitimate way to end a conflict. 

Carolyn Madplume said her daughter Catherine was killed in 2005 and that she’s tired of what she called the criminal justice system’s concentration on what to do with the criminal and forgetting about the victims. She called the death penalty the most extreme example of that. 

“Let’s spend energy and resources helping the victims instead,” Madplume said. “Let’s teach our communities that it’s the victims we want to talk about not the killers.”

Robert Filipovich said as someone who worked in Montana prisons for 25 years he is against putting people to death.

“In a nutshell we don’t find executions to be a picnic,” he said.

Opponents of the measure, who were outnumbered by supporters, say it’s a needed tool in the justice system. Two Republican lawmakers spoke in opposition, telling horrific stories of how homicide has affected their lives.

Rep. Tom Berry’s son was kidnapped, tortured and killed in 2001. He said he believes in the death penalty because it was successfully used to negotiate a guilty plea from one of the people who participated in his son’s killing. 

Rep. Roy Hollandsworth of Brady said when he was 6-months-old, his father was murdered by a man at his family’s ranch. He said his mother and brother have lived their lives in fear ever since and that the shooter is now out on parole.

“My thought is, if you want to do something good ... put it on a referendum and let voters choose,” he said.

Similar bills have made it through the Senate in prior years but in the past two legislative sessions they have failed to gain traction in the House.

Capital punishment is currently legal in 32 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Since 2009, New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut and Maryland have ended the use of the death penalty, replacing it with a sentence of life imprisonment with no opportunity for parole.

Two men currently housed in the maximum-security unit at Montana State Prison have been sentenced to die. 

The committee did not take action on the measure Friday.

 

MORE IMPORTED STORIES

Panel votes to abolish death penalty
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 10 years, 4 months ago
Death penalty system discussed
Lake County Leader | Updated 14 years, 8 months ago
Montana House committee tables bill to abolish death penalty
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 4 years, 4 months ago

ARTICLES BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 9, 2021 12:03 a.m.

The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland

WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.

September 8, 2021 12:03 a.m.

The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland

WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.

September 8, 2021 12:03 a.m.

The Latest: Top Republican says Taliban holding Americans

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says some Americans who have been trying to get out of Afghanistan since the U.S. military left are sitting in airplanes at an airport ready to leave but the Taliban are not letting them take off.