Bill would allow death penalty for slayings at schools

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Murders committed on school grounds or in places of worship could qualify for the death penalty under a bill advancing through the Indiana Legislature.

The bill has passed the Senate and is assigned to the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee, whose chairman is receptive to adding the locations to the aggravating factors that warrant the death penalty.

"If someone's willing to come on school property and murder someone, that could very well be one that could be added to the list of aggravators that would bring it to a death penalty situation," Rep. Thomas Washburne, R-Inglefield, told The Indianapolis Star (http://indy.st/1HC7U76 ). "If someone's willing to come in and kill somebody during a religious service, then that conduct, too, probably could be an aggravator."

Indiana currently has nearly 20 aggravating factors that allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty or life without parole in murder cases. Those include killing a law enforcement officer or more than one person.

Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek, said he sponsored the bill after a slaying at Purdue University in which prosecutors weren't able to seek the death penalty because state law doesn't include campus shootings as aggravating factors.

Instead, Cody Cousins received a 65-year sentence for the slaying of Andrew Boldt, a fellow student. Cousins committed suicide about a month after he was sentenced.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, said the prospect of the death penalty isn't likely to prevent someone from committing a murder.

"As a preventive thing, I think it's somewhat meaningless. People who do school shootings are really not deterred by the punishment," Dieter said. "I understand the sentiment that the worst crimes deserve the worst punishment, but being smart about crime would be looking into other solutions that might work."

The bill also would allow prosecutors to seek capital punishment for murders committed when children are present.

The bill received bipartisan support in the Senate.

At least two states currently include school shootings in their aggravating factors for the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Illinois calls for the death penalty if the victim was a teacher or school employee who was on school property at the time of the slaying. Nevada makes a murder committed on school property or at a related school activity by a person who aimed to kill more than one person an aggravating factor.

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com