© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

House discusses death penalty abolition in Missouri

A new bill in the Mo. House would abolish the dealth penalty in the state.
j.stephenconn
/
flickr
A new bill in the Mo. House would abolish the dealth penalty in the state.

A House committee heard testimony Wednesday on legislation that would abolish the death penalty in Missouri.  As St. Louis Public Radio’s Marshall Griffin tells us, the bill would also commute sentences of all current Death Row inmates to “life without parole."

Several people testified in favor of the bill, including Kevin Green, a California man who spent 16 years in prison on charges that he raped his wife and killed their unborn baby.  He was eventually exonerated after DNA evidence showed another man had committed the crime.  He says doing hard time in prison is a harsher punishment than being executed.

“I have broke bread with men who have killed and had it reverted back to a life sentence when they did away with the death penalty back in the 70’s, who wished for the death penalty to be there again because they would have already been dead, instead of having to languish, knowing they’ll never get out,” Green said.

No one testified against the bill, but a GOP member of the committee said that the state needs to have the option of executing people for heinous crimes. 

Missouri Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a proud alumnus of the University of Mississippi (a.k.a., Ole Miss), and has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off the old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Mason, and their cat, Honey.