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Sponsor pulls capital-murder bill after critics warn it could make misdemeanor drug deals death-eligible
Summary
A bill to add certain drug transactions as predicate offenses for capital murder was pulled after prosecutors argued it would capture deadly violence tied to low-level drug transactions and defense lawyers warned it could make misdemeanor drug sales a death-eligible predicate without creating a lesser offense.
Representative Jimmy Gazzaway presented a bill to expand the list of predicate offenses for capital murder to include deaths occurring in the course of an illegal drug transaction, regardless of whether the underlying drug offense was a felony or misdemeanor. Pulaski County prosecutors told the committee they were seeing violent deaths tied to marijuana transactions and argued the change would allow…
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