State Sen. Mike Stuart called Monday for a renewed death penalty in West Virginia for cases involving the death of first responders. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)

CHARLESTON — Another Republican lawmaker is calling for a return to the death penalty in West Virginia for specific cases, but others question the effectiveness of the death penalty.

In a press release Monday, state Sen. Mike Stuart said the first bill he will introduce when the 2024 legislative session begins at noon Wednesday is legislation to reinstate capital punishment, the death penalty, in cases that involve the death of law enforcement and first responders.

“If you target first responders in the line of duty leading to death, the death penalty should be on the table,” said Stuart, R-Kanawha. “This isn’t about vengeance. This is about justice.”

Stuart, an announced candidate for the Republican primary for attorney general, cited the death of West Virginia State Police Sgt. Cory Maynard last summer. Timothy Kennedy pleaded not guilty in June after being accused of ambushing Maynard after the trooper was responding to a call of shots fired near Matewan in Mingo County.

Maynard also cited the deaths of Nicholas County Sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Baker and Charleston Police Department Officer Cassie Johns, as well as troopers Cadin Spessert and Abe Bean who survived multiple gunshots after serving arrest warrants in Martinsburg in December.

House Minority Leader Pro Tempore Kayla Young said reinstating the death penalty would not be a deterrent to violent crime or illegal drug distribution. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)

“There is no ‘ordinary’ day for first responders,” Stuart said. “Every day and every call is fraught with potentially life-threatening danger. We must defend our first responders and make clear that we will not tolerate these acts of depravity and reckless disregard for the men and women who serve to protect each of us.”

Stuart is the second Republican lawmaker to call for a return to the death penalty. State Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said last week during the West Virginia Press Association’s Legislative Lookahead that he will sponsor a bill this year to bring back capital punishment for fentanyl manufacturers and wholesale distributors.

“Do I think anybody will ever be put to death in the state of West Virginia? I doubt it,” Blair said. “But what we’re wanting to do is send a message out to these animals that are selling this and manufacturing this to stay the hell out of West Virginia.”

West Virginia’s death penalty was eliminated in 1965. While there have been bills offered nearly every year to bring it back, those bills have been unsuccessful.

According to the death row Information Center, there are 2,331 prisoners sitting on death row in 28 states, including 129 prisoners in Ohio, 123 prisoners in Pennsylvania, and 26 prisoners in Kentucky. According to a 2022 report by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the number of prisoners on death row has been steadily decreasing each year. There were only 24 executions in 2023. Since 1973, approximately 195 people previously on death row have been exonerated after new evidence of their innocence came to light.

“Time and time again, studies have shown that capital punishment does not deter crime, that it drains valuable resources, and kills innocent people,” said Eli Baumwell, interim executive director of ACLU-WV. “West Virginia lawmakers figured out 60 years ago that the death penalty has no place in modern society. We will do everything in our power to prevent the reinstatement of state-sanctioned murder.”

Delegate Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, House minority leader pro tempore, was skeptical that a return to a death penalty option for judges to use for sentencing would be the deterrent some Republicans believe it can be.

“I think it is interesting that a massive group of people who call themselves pro-life are now calling for the death penalty of certain people based on specific circumstances,” Young said Monday afternoon. “They always say ‘in these very limited circumstances,’ however each one of them has a very different limited circumstance.”

Young said allowing for a limited death penalty could open the door to expanding the death penalty further for other crimes.

“We know how these things go. Christmas trees form here in the Legislature; one person introduces one thing and suddenly it snowballs into every felon or every drug or every charge,” Young said. “I just don’t know how you can call yourself pro-life and then call for the death of people. We have a criminal justice system. It’s working.

“We haven’t had a death penalty in more than 60 years. I think we should be protecting the life of people on this planet and in this state that we are in charge of,” Young continued. “Even if they do something wrong, I don’t think they should die.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at adams@newsandsentinel.com.