Legislative action includes E-versity, death penalty, guns on campus rules

The House on Thursday (Feb. 26)  approved a bill to create a way for people to finish their degree online through the state’s largest university, while House members sponsored bills involving judicial ethics and the death penalty.

Also, a series of bills filed Thursday could provide a bright line for judges when they dispense justice or have to step away from a case or face criminal charges.

The 93-3 vote on Senate Bill 265 capped a busy day in the legislature with committees also approving several requests. Senate Bill 265 would create a so-called “E-versity” within the University of Arkansas system. Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, who co-sponsored the bill, said the program’s goal would help people in his mostly rural district.

Bell said many people in the district “are 100 miles from the nearest four-year school and 85 miles from the nearest four-lane.” Those numbers have also led to lower numbers of people in his district with at least a bachelor’s degree. Bell said the bill has a special meaning for him.

“It is personal to me. I don’t have a bachelor’s degree,” Bell told the House.

Bell said he has completed between 150 and 160 credit hours but has not earned a degree.

“I’d like to have the piece of paper, but I don’t want to drive the 100 miles or so to get it,” Bell said.

Under the bill, people would be allowed to take six-week courses with a three-hour class, costing around $500. Bell told the House that the program would be funded exclusively through student tuition and private donations, noting nearly 14,000 people in the state already take some sort of online classes. Students would be able to take classes one at a time, to start with, and could be able to take more if the program is successful, Bell said.

Rep. Monte Hodges, D-Blytheville, asked Bell about a possible impact the bill would have on two-year colleges in the state. Bell reiterated the amount would be slightly more than the cost of a community college class, but lower than the amount for a class at a four-year college. Some lawmakers also asked if the creation of the “E-versity” would entirely benefit the University of Arkansas.

Bell said there would be nothing to preclude other universities, like Arkansas State University or the University of Central Arkansas, from taking advantage of the opportunity. The bill now goes to the Senate.

DEATH PENALTY, JUDICIAL ETHICS
Rep. Rebecca Petty, R-Rogers, filed House Bill 1473 Thursday afternoon. The bill would look at the methods used to carry out the state’s death penalty, which currently is by lethal injection.

Arkansas has not carried out an execution by lethal injection since 2005 due to legal challenges and difficulty acquiring the drugs needed to carry out the death sentence.

While Petty’s bill, now in shell form, does not include specific methods, Petty said the punishment would include looking at how other states conduct executions. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, those methods include lethal injection, electrocution, the gas chamber, hanging, and possibly firing squads. Firing squads are used in Utah if an inmate chooses the method if he was convicted of his crime before it was eliminated as a state option. Oklahoma is the only other state to consider firing squads if lethal injection and electrocution are found unconstitutional, according to the center’s web site.

Petty said she is consulting with the governor’s office on her measure, indicating that the Hutchinson administration’s preference is still lethal injection. She said she is willing to do a nationwide study to see what might be most effective. The bill would only cover capital murder and treason cases in the state.

Petty, whose daughter was found raped and murdered in 1999, has worked on several criminal justice-related bills this session. The man convicted of the murder, Karl D. Roberts, is on death row at Varner Supermax prison. One of the bills – Andi’s Law – is named after her daughter. The bill, which passed the legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, would allow family members of murder victims to witness the execution of the person convicted in their family member’s case.

The bill filed Thursday was the second bill in a month involving the death penalty issue.
Sen. David Burnett, D-Osceola, filed a bill to repeal the death penalty in the state. Burnett’s bill was approved Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill is likely to face opposition from the state’s prosecuting attorneys as well as the entire Senate.

Petty said her effort to explore other methods of execution was in response to the Senate Judiciary committee’s action. She said the committee’s decision was “a slap in the face after fighting for Andi’s Law.”

Rep. John Baine, D-El Dorado, filed House Bills 1456, 1457 and 1458 after speaking to attorneys, judges and the state’s judicial ethics commission about the issue of unethical behavior from the bench.

“It is regrettable in light of recent events,” Baine said of the filings of the bills.

The issue of judicial ethics has been at the forefront since former Circuit Judge Mike Maggio pleaded guilty in January to federal bribery charges. Maggio, who was running for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was accused of accepting a campaign contribution that he told authorities influenced his decision to reduce a jury verdict in 2013, Talk Business and Politics reported in January. Baine said House Bill 1456 would amend state law by allowing for an automatic suspension for judges and justices in different circumstances.

OTHER FLOOR ACTION

A student may have an opportunity to learn what their financial future could hold under a bill that passed the Senate Thursday. The Senate voted 33-0, with one present, to approve Senate Bill 211 sponsored by Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale.

The bill requires the Department of Workforce Services or someone hired by the department, starting June 30, 2016, to put together an “Economic Security Report” of employment and earning outcomes for degrees and certificated earned at colleges and universities in the state.

The information, which would also be online, would break down the information based on employment, earnings, student loan debt, percentage of graduates in a field as well as degree programs in the top 25 percent of degree fields and the bottom 10 percent of degree fields.

According to the bill, students in grades 7-12 as well as their parents would receive copies of a two-page summary of the report and access to the website. The bill now heads to the House.

COMMITTEES

The House Education Committee also approved two bills Thursday, one of which involved the possession of a concealed handgun in a university, college or community college building. The bill, which failed in committee earlier in the session, was amended by its sponsor, Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, content partner KUAR reported.

Under the amendment from Rep. Scott Baltz, D-Pocahontas, colleges will require active shooter training for permit holders as well as prohibiting guns at day care centers on campus. The training class includes 16-hours in initial training as well as eight hours annually in training. The bill now heads to the House.