Death Penalty for Cop Killers? Michigan Patch Poll

Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1847. Three efforts since 1995 to bring it back have failed to make it out of the Legislature to the ballot box. (Photo licensed under Creative Commons)

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Cop killers could get the death penalty in Michigan under legislation proposed by state Sen. Virgil Smith, D-Detroit.

Smith told the Detroit Free Press he introduced the legislation, which has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the request of Jim Bowens, the father of Detroit Police Officer Matthew Bowens, who was killed during a traffic stop in 2004 along with his partner, Officer Jennifer Fettig.

Their killer, Eric L. Marshall, was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2010.

“If you kill a cop, you’re the most egregious criminal out there,” Smith said. “If you’re willing to go that far, there’s no telling what you’re willing to do. There should be no mercy at that point.”

The proposal faces an uphill battle in Michigan, which abolished capital punishment in 1847 and reinforced the ban in a 1962 constitutional convention.

Smith said the death penalty could only be applied in the limited circumstances involving the killing of a police or correctional officer. “These are the people at the front line trying to defend our safety, so we need to protect them as much as we can,” he said.

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Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, a former county sheriff, has a long record of support for victims of crime, but unilaterally opposes the death penalty because “occasionally,” he said, “the system makes a mistake.”

“If a mistake is made, we can’t dig somebody up and say we’re sorry,” he said. “If somebody’s in prison, we can release them. I’m firmly against the death penalty.”

The resolution would require a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature, and in a statewide referendum.

Three previous legislative efforts to bring back the death penalty, including one by now Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard when he was a state senator in 1995, have failed. Bouchard’s bill didn’t have enough support to make it to the floor for debate, and former state Rep. Larry Julian, R-Lennon, twice failed to get the votes necessary to move the death penalty question to the ballot box.

Bouchard, a Birmingham Republican, said he supports the death penalty in all circumstances, “whether it’s a soccer mom, a business owner or a police officer who is killed.”

“I think a jury has the right to make that decision,” he said. “It’s a shame that the Legislature consistently refuses to let the people vote on it.”

Eighteen U.S. states have abolished the death penalty, six of them in the last decade.

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