Utah’s lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have allowed drug dealers to face homicide charges in overdose deaths.
HB309 would have permitted prosecutors to charge dealers with a first-degree felony homicide count, if a customer dies from a drug overdose. A conviction could carry the potential penalty of up to life in prison.
Pointing to Utah’s high rate of deaths from drug overdoes, bill sponsor Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, had said the legislation would be a deterrent for dealers.
Senate floor sponsor Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, said Wednesday that the bill sends a message to drug dealers that they would be responsible for a customer’s death.
“You’re committing a criminal act that leads to the death of an individual,” he said. “This says, ‘We’re going to hold you accountable.’”
The bill cleared the House with favorable votes, but failed on the Senate floor on an 11-12 vote on Wednesday morning.
HB309 would have required prosecutors to prove that a suspect was running a “criminal enterprise” and that the drugs that caused the overdose could be traced directly back to that suspect. Eliason said the bill targets “kingpin” drug dealers, and did not apply to doctors who are prescribing pills legally.
Twenty other states currently have similar drug-induced homicide laws.
As the bill was considered during the session, lawmakers expressed concern that a person could be charged with homicide, even though they never intended to kill someone. Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, said Wednesday that he worries the bill inappropriately elevates drug dealing to homicide.
“That seems a little dangerous to me,” he said, “to expand what we have for decades treated as a separate kind of crime and elevating it to a homicide.”
Feb. 23: Lawmakers OK bill that would allow drug dealers to face homicide charges in overdose deaths
After Dennis Cecchini’s son died of a heroin overdose in 2015, he looked through his son’s cell phone and saw all of the messages exchanged between his son and his drug dealer.
Tennyson Cecchini had gotten out of rehab four days before his fatal overdose. Looking at the messages, the father told lawmakers Friday, it was apparent to him the dealer had no concern for his son’s life or his efforts to recover from an addiction with which he struggled for 10 years.
The messages were clear, Dennis Cecchini said: If his 33-year-old son wanted them, the drugs would be there.
“They have no regard for human life,” the father said of drug dealers. “They really don’t care.”
Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune Celeste and Dennis Cecchini's son Tennyson was 23 when he became addicted to opioids after a sports injury. That addiction turned to heroin. As the addiction took him over, he lost his job, his fiance and ended up living with his parents. He tried outpatient treatment but even after 1.5 years, that didn't work. His parents then put him in inpatient treatment. He was there for 60 days, but four days after he was released, Tennyson was dead leaving behind an eight year old son.
On Friday, during a House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee hearing, Cecchini urged lawmakers to push forward HB309, a bill that would allow prosecutors to charge dealers with a first-degree felony homicide count, if a customer dies from a drug overdose.
“If we are going to stop this epidemic, we need to stop the people that are fostering it and promoting it,” Cecchini said. “We have to do something to stop it. Business as usual isn’t doing it.”
Pointing to Utah’s high rate of deaths from drug overdoses, bill sponsor Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, said Friday that the legislation would be a deterrent for dealers. Twenty other states currently have similar drug-induced homicide laws.
“We want to send a strong message,” Eliason said, “that if you are trying to profit from somebody’s addiction, and if through the results of your actions that person dies, you can be charged with homicide.”
A first-degree felony conviction can carry the potential penalty of up to life in prison.
If the bill passes, prosecutors would need to prove that a suspect was running a “criminal enterprise” and that the drugs that caused the overdose could be traced directly back to that suspect. Eliason said the bill targets “kingpin” drug dealers, and it would not apply to doctors who are prescribing pills legally.
HB309 passed out of committee on a unanimous vote, and will now move to the full House for consideration.
Despite the unanimous vote, some committee members expressed concern that a person could be charged with a first-degree felony homicide, even though they never intended to kill someone. Rep. Ed Redd, R-Logan, wondered if a second-degree felony manslaughter charge was more appropriate.
Officials with the Utah Sentencing Commission and Utah’s Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice echoed similar concerns about prosecutors being able to prove intent and causation.
CCJJ Director Kim Cordova questioned how easily the drugs could be traced back to one dealer, especially if a user has more than one source for drugs or ingested more than one substance. She also said the bill raises concerns that dealers may not call police for help if they are with someone when they overdose.
“There may be a lack of motivation to call for help because of fear of prosecution,” she said.
But most lawmakers on the committee seemed to support the heightened penalties, including Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, who said targeting drug dealers would “cut the head off the serpent.”
“I’ve dealt with these scumbags who deal drugs,” said Ray, who works in finance, according to the Legislature’s website. “I’d charge them with the death penalty if I could. What they do is egregious and they take lives.”
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