MADISON — Wisconsin voters will be asked during the Nov. 7 general election whether the state should lift its 1853 ban on the death penalty, the longest state ban in the nation.

The Republican-controlled state Senate voted 18-15 on Tuesday after a contentious four-hour debate to set up an advisory referendum to gauge the public’s opinion on administering the penalty for certain convicted killers.
The move adds another emotional issue to an election in which voters will decide whether to re-elect Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and rewrite the state constitution to ban gay marriage and civil unions.

Tuesday’s action by the Senate puts this question on the ballot: “Should the death penalty be enacted in the state of Wisconsin for cases involving a person who is convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, if the conviction is supported by DNA evidence?”

Death penalty supporters hope the results will encourage the Legislature to enact a law lifting the 153-year-old ban on the practice, the longest ban of all 12 states without the death penalty, as early as next year.

“I am optimistic that a thoughtful and spirited debate on the merits of reinstatement can now take place,” said Sen. Alan Lasee, R-De Pere, who sponsored the resolution. “This debate is what will influence legislators when they return for the 2007 session.”

The prospect for reinstatement will be unlikely as long as Doyle, who opposes the death penalty, wins re-election. But his opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, has said he would sign a death penalty bill into law if approved by the Legislature.

Democrats, in heated speeches that dominated the afternoon floor debate, called the referendum a political stunt aimed at driving up turnout among conservative voters. They said they were ashamed Republicans wanted to bring back a policy that could execute wrongly convicted people.

“It’s been 153 years since the government killed a person in the state of Wisconsin,” said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton. “We have functioned as a state without it. We don’t need it.”

Sen. Cathy Stepp, R-Sturtevant, said Tuesday was not the time for debate on the complex social and moral issues raised by capital punishment.

“All we’re trying to do is to give people the opportunity to tell us how they feel,” she said. “Why are we so afraid of finding out what people want?”

The Senate in March adopted a similar plan. The Assembly, in a 47-45 vote earlier this month, changed the date of the referendum to November from the September primary and broadened the question to apply to all first-degree murderers instead of “vicious” homicides.

The Senate’s 18-15 vote on Tuesday adopted those changes. Senators voted to reject Democratic amendments that would have changed the referendum date back to September and made clear the death penalty would apply only to adults.

Two Republicans — Sens. Mary Lazich of New Berlin and Glenn Grothman of West Bend — joined 13 Democrats in opposition to the Assembly changes. One Democrat, Roger Breske of Eland, voted with the remaining 17 Republicans in favor.

Lawmakers banned the death penalty five years after Wisconsin became a state in reaction to the grisly public hanging in Kenosha of a man who had drowned his wife. Repeated attempts to bring back the penalty have failed. Life in prison without parole is the stiffest penalty available.

Democrats said the referendum was a waste of time because polls show the death penalty is popular among the state and the issue would get lost amid the other ballot questions in November.

But Lasee, who has worked to reinstate the death penalty for 30 years, said the referendum could build public support for his goal. He said the referendum is the only way to push the issue because Doyle’s veto pen stands in the way of any bill. The referendum did not need approval from the governor.

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