I’ve never been on such an emotional roller coaster.

Last night, I thought the death penalty repeal bill was dead.

Senators whom we had always counted as solid votes for the bill were not going to vote for the motion that would bring the legislation to the floor for debate.

I ran into one of them in the State House. The problem: we shouldn’t give special treatment to repeal of the death penalty when issues of great concern to this Senator were languishing in committee.

I let the Governor’s office know of the Senator’s concern.

The evening ended on a better note. The Senator at our table got a cell phone call from the Governor at 9:30. No vote was being taken for granted.

This morning, I resolved not to follow the Senate debate on the web. The bad news would travel fast enough.

So I was very pleasantly surprised when someone told me that we had narrowly prevailed on the procedural motion.

The bill would be considered by the full Senate!!

But the debate this afternoon soon turned sour.

Two amendments were adopted that would allow executions if certain evidentiary conditions were met.

One was “a video-taped voluntary interrogation and confession of the defendant to the murder.” But what took place before the video was turned on?

I am certain that death penalty sentences that meet this standard have been overturned on legal grounds or because serious doubts were later raised about the guilt of the defendant as he sat on death row.