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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 11 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USHouse panel advanced bill offering life with parole
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee moments ago unanimously advanced to the full House a bill that would allow prosecutors to seek a sentence of life in prison without parole for murder without having to ask for the death penalty to get it.
Under Georgia law, prosecutors can get life without parole for murder by seeking the death penalty. If a defendant is convicted, the jury has three sentencing options: life with the possibility of parole; life without parole; or death. In regular murder cases, there is only one sentence: life with parole.
Senate Bill 13 would let a district attorney ask the judge during the sentencing hearing of a murder trial to give a life-without-parole sentence.
The bill has widespread support because it would spare DAs from mounting costly death penalty prosecutions when the sentence they want is life without parole. It also would let DAs focus capital prosecutions on the most heinous murder cases, potentially making administration of Georgia’s death penalty less arbitrary.
It has already passed the Senate.
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