LANSING, MI (WTVB) – Capital punishment is a topic that usually stirs up emotions and it’s happening in Lansing. Anyone convicted of killing a police or correctional department officer in Michigan would face the death penalty under legislation being proposed by a state Senator. Democrat Virgil Smith says he’s bringing up the issue because he pledged to do so in conversations with the father of a Detroit police officer who was killed in 2004.
Smith’s resolution would need approval of two-thirds of the Senate and House to be placed on the ballot for the public to decide. Michigan banned capital punishment in 1847, and was the first state to do so.
