HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 107
(By Delegate Walters, By Request)
[Introduced February 12, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Constitutional Revision.]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, by adding thereto a new article, designated
article fifteen, relating to imposing the death penalty by
electric chair for the crime of first degree murder with
premeditation; limiting time for administration of penalty;
limiting appeals; numbering and designating such proposed
amendment; and providing a summarized statement of the
purpose of such proposed amendment.
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of
the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an
amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be
submitted to the voters of the State at the next general election
to be held in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight,
which proposed amendment is that a new article be added thereto,
designated article fifteen, to read as follows:
ARTICLE XV. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
§1. Penalty for murder in the first degree with premeditation.
Murder in the first degree with premeditation shall be
punished by death in the electric chair after five years of a
sentence have been served and after a maximum of three appeals; and, be it
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of
article eleven, chapter three of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, such proposed
amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1" and designated as
the "Death Penalty Amendment," and the purpose of the proposed
amendment is summarized as follows: "To amend the State
Constitution to impose the death penalty by electric chair for
murder in the first degree with premeditation after five years of
a sentence have been served and after a maximum of three
appeals."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to amend the
Constitution to impose the death penalty for first degree murder
with premeditation, after five years of a sentence have been
served, and to limit the number of appeals to three.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.