MA will NEVER pass and ENFORCE the death penalty. Our pols are much to liberal, they coddle the murderers, put plans in place for early release, unsupervised furloughs, etc.
I've been thru this too many times (watching my hopes get dashed) over the 31 adult years I've been back in MA.
I've discussed it a number of times with my state elected officials and they are so into saving every scumbag's life for moral reasons that it makes me want to puke.
Back in the late 1970s I visited the "B Block" (hardcore murderers) at Walpole State Prison a number of times, even arranged for the Senate Chair of the Ways & Means Committee for a personal one-on-many tour of same (he asked me to arrange it, he was my Finance professor in my MBA program). I met ~20 lifers there many times, even got a call at work from one of them asking for me to personally intercede on his behalf (he asked me to talk to the Commr of Corrections, who I knew) to get an early out (after 8 years of a "life" sentence for murder)!