(Statehouse) – A bill has been filed this legislative session that would abolish the death penalty on the state level.
Many religious groups, especially the Catholic church, are supporting the measure. The bill was filed by State Rep. Robert Morris (R-Fort Wayne). He represents the same area where Joseph Corcoran murdered four people back in 1997.
Corcoran was put to death in November of last year as the first prisoner on death row to be executed by the state in over a decade.
Indianapolis Archbishop Charles Thompson says the death penalty needs to be abolished for the sake of those on death row and those who have to carry out these executions.
“The longstanding position for the Catholic Church, the dignity of life from conception to natural death, and this is one piece of that we believe, that the death penalty denies the ability for someone to have a reformation, or conversion of heart or to be transformed in that in a period of time that lifelong prison might be able to provide,” Thompson said on WISH-TV.
If the bill were to be passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mike Braun, a person sentenced to death and is awaiting execution of the death sentence, their sentence would then be commuted to life imprisonment without parole.
Thompson said doing away with the death penalty has bipartisan support.
“The research basically shows that in places where the death penalty has been abolished, they actually have a lesser murder rate than places that continue the death penalty,” Thompson said.
At the moment the bill has been referred to the House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code. It’s had a reading in the committee but has not had much traction since being filed in January.
(Story by Network Indiana)
