Yager backed death penalty bill passes Senate

“I congratulate Sen. Yager on getting this bill passed through the legislative process,” District Attorney General Russell Johnson said. “Hopefully, this will have at least some deterrent effect on these most heinous of crimes.”

In addition to child rape, the bill also authorizes the death penalty as a punishment for aggravated child rape and especially aggravated child rape.

“Victims of these crimes suffer for the remainder of their lives, so it stands to reason that a perpetrator of these crimes should at least face the prospect of execution in the more egregious of these cases,” Johnson said.

The bill passed 24-5 in the Senate on April 9. Yager spoke about its passage with the Roane County News.

“I was very pleased with the broad support that we received for it,” he said. “It’s all about protecting children from these heinous, horrendous crimes, so I was really pleased about it.”

Johnson wasn’t the only one who lauded Yager for his work on the bill.

“@YagerTweets just gave the children of TN a massive victory in the fight against child trafficking,” the Tennessee Faith & Freedom Coalition posted on X last week. “Senator Yager spearheaded the passage of the Child Rape Death Penalty Option bill in our State Senate.”

People convicted of child rape, aggravated child rape or especially aggravated child rape wouldn’t automatically receive a death sentence under the bill. Life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole are also possible punishments.

“Really what we did was we just put it on the table as an option for the judge and the jury,” Yager said about the death penalty. “I thought it was really important to protect kids, so that’s what I did.”

The bill is not law yet. It is still pending in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

State Rep. Monty Fritts, R-Kingston, criticized U.S. Senate candidate Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, for her lack of support on the bill in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee earlier this year.