A bill that would have charged Fentanyl dealers with murder is not advancing but will be reconsidered in the future. 

Senate Bill 44, co-authored by 41 legislators and over half of the State Senate, would require the court to advise a person who is either convicted of, pleads guilty, or pleads no contest to a fentanyl-related drug death to be charged with homicide.  

Dubbed “Alexandra’s Law,” SB44 was named after Alexandra Capelouto, who thought she was taking Percocet and died from fentanyl poisoning a few days before Christmas in Temecula in 2019. 

Four state senators voted against it yesterday, including State Senator Scott Wiener, saying it needs to specify the dealer either knew, or should have known, that the drugs they sold contained fentanyl.   

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins was at the state Senate committee to support the bill, saying: “The level of death and misery on San Francisco streets as a result of fentanyl is staggering and unacceptable. In the last three years, 75% of the 1,400 overdose deaths that occurred in San Francisco, involved fentanyl.”