The death penalty is not the best way to punish a killer for his crimes, according to a man whose murder conviction and death penalty were overturned in 2004.
Randy Steidl, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in the 1986 death of a couple, was at the Legislature this week to lobby in favor of SF 145, which would repeal the state’s death penalty and make life without the possibility of parole the state’s harshest criminal penalty.
Steidl said a lifetime of incarceration is a preferable punishment for a convicted murderer.“If you really want to punish a vicious killer, you put them in a cage for the rest of their life to think about the crimes they committed,” he said. “If they don’t repent to their God, then when they die, they burn in Hell. That’s justice.”
The House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee voted 5-4 last week to send the bill to the House floor for debate by the full body. It is on the House’s “General File,” a list of bills waiting for their first full review.
