Nebraska Retains the Death Penalty
- April
- 6
5:31 pm Live Literature
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican who had been expected to veto the bill if it passed, applauded the vote and said the focus now should be on deciding a legal method of execution for the state.Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha introduced the bill to repeal the death penalty, as he has every year for the past three decades. But term limits will push him out of the Capitol after this session.”Years down the line I can live a lot more comfortably with what I’ve done these 38 years than what my colleagues can do,” Chambers said.The last execution in the state was in 1997, when Robert Williams was put to death by electrocution for killing three women.Death row inmate Carey Dean Moore was scheduled to be executed in May last year, but the state Supreme Court halted it less than a week beforehand. The court said at the time it must reconsider whether the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, given a “changing legal landscape.”The court said in its February opinion that evidence shows electrocution inflicts “intense pain and agonizing suffering” and that it “has proven itself to be a dinosaur more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein” than a state prison.The state attorney general has asked state Supreme Court justices to reconsider their ruling on the electric chair, although he said he doesn’t expect them to change their minds. He’s still considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.Ten men now sit on Nebraska’s death row.___On the Net:Nebraska Legislature: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov
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