Senate Bill 119

Update: Wtih a 4-3 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send Senate Bill 119 to the 41st Day, effectively killing the bill.

Background: Senate Bill 119 would repeal capital punishment.

Our position: The ACLU of South Dakota supports Senate Bill 119.

The death penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the guarantees of due process of law and of equal protection under the law. Furthermore, the state should not give itself the right to kill human beings – especially when it kills with premeditation and ceremony, in the name of the law or in the name of its people, and when it does so in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion.

Capital punishment is an intolerable denial of civil liberties and is inconsistent with the fundamental values of our democratic system. The death penalty is uncivilized in theory and unfair and inequitable in practice.