Representative seeks to hault death penalty

Intro: A moratorium on Missouri's death penalty came before the House Crime Prevention Committee on Tuesday. Gavin Off has more from the Capitol.

Republican Representative Bill Deeken, a death penalty supporter, has called for the state to halt all executions until 2011.

In the meantime, a 10-member commission would review Missouri's death penalty.

The commission would make sure first-degree murder defendants are actually guilty, that race does not play a role in sentencing and that the state uniformly upholds death penalty laws.

Actuality: DEATH1.WAV

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Description: "If I was on a jury and found out five years later I sentenced a man to death and he was put to death and found out that he was not guilty, it would be very hard for me to live with."

Deeken was backed by about two dozen moratorium supporters during the half-hour long meeting.

Several Republican legislators, however, have said they would not support a halt on Missouri's death penalty.

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About 20 supporters of a moratorium on Missouri's death penalty gathered at a House Crimes Prevention committee hearing Tuesday. Gavin Off has more from the Capitol.

In 1979 California police charged Kevin Green with murdering his wife's unborn baby, after police said he beat his wife with a 2-by-4.

Green spent the next 16 years in prison. But he was released, after police found his wife's true attacker.

Now Green is helping to campaign for a death penalty moratorium in Missouri.

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Description: "Our system is just a human system. It's subject to human error. The reality of what actually happened though is both shocking and surprising. And all too common and correctable."

A bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Bill Deeken, is seeking to halt all state executions until 2011.

The House Crimes Prevention Committee heard a discussion Tuesday on a death penalty moratorium Gavin Off has more from the Capitol.

Supporters of a moratorium said it's morally incumbent upon the state to review its death penalty policies.

Redditt Hudson, with the American Civil Liberties Union, said lawmakers have a responsibility to pass a death penalty moratorium and study the state's laws.

Hudson spoke Tuesday at a House Crime Prevention Committee hearing.

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Description: "You have the collective responsibility that is incumbent upon us. And if we cannot do it in this house of laws than what the hell does that say about us."

Hudson advocated a bill sponsored by Representative Bill Deeken. Deeken's bill calls for a halt on the death penalty until 2011.

But many Republican legislators said they support the death penalty and that there is no need for a moratorium.