By Marcia Coyle, From The National Law Journal
Correction: This article has been changed to clarify that Nebraska was the seventh state in the past 10 years to abolish capital punishment.
The Nebraska Legislature, following a debate rife with quotes from, among other sources, the Bible, Pontius Pilate and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on Wednesday became the first predominantly Republican state in more than 40 years to repeal the death penalty.
State lawmakers, voting 30-19, overrode Gov. Pete Ricketts’ veto of repeal legislation approved last week primarily with the help of their conservative colleagues. Those Republican lawmakers again made the difference during the override vote.
Nebraska was the seventh state in the past 10 years and the 19th, plus the District of Columbia, to repeal the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The most recent states to abolish the death penalty were Maryland (2013); Connecticut (2012); Illinois (2011); New Mexico (2009); New Jersey (2007); and New York (2007).
“Today we’re doing something that transcends me, that transcends this Legislature, that transcends this state. We’re talking about human dignity,” said Sen. Ernie Chambers, the repeal’s sponsor. Chambers, the longest serving state senator, has tried to repeal the death penalty 37 times. A repeal bill passed the unicameral body in 1979 but was vetoed by Governor Charles Thone. The Legislature failed that year to override Thone’s veto.
“My words cannot express how appalled I am that we have lost a critical tool to protect law enforcement and Nebraska families,” Ricketts said. “While the Legislature has lost touch with the citizens of Nebraska, I will continue to stand with Nebraskans and law enforcement on this important issue.”
Despite Wednesday’s vote, Sen. Dave Bloomfield warned, “No matter what we do here today, this debate will not be done. I’m virtually certain there will be a bill next year to take [the issue] to a vote of the people. This debate is not going to end today.”
Death penalty opponents moved swiftly to applaud the legislators’ action.
“Nebraska now stands at the vanguard of an emerging bipartisan consensus that there is no place for capital punishment in America,” said Theodore Simon, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “Today’s vote is a critical step forward in bringing this woefully defective practice one step closer to being properly and universally eliminated.”
Marc Hyden, national coordinator for Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, said in a written statement, “I’m not surprised that conservatives led the death penalty repeal effort in Nebraska. I think this will become more common. When I speak to conservatives across the nation, they’re eager to share their concerns about the death penalty.”
He added, “Conservatives have sponsored repeal bills in Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Missouri and Kentucky in recent years. National conservative leaders are also speaking up because the death penalty violates the core conservative principles of fiscal responsibility, limited government and valuing life.”
Wednesday’s debate reflected many of those conservative concerns as some lawmakers addressed the cost of the death penalty, its ineffectiveness as a deterrent and the potential for error.
“The search for justice can lead to the ultimate injustice,” Sen. Paul Schumacher said, adding later, “I will not be Pontius Pilate.”
Others appeared torn between their personal beliefs and their commitments to constituents.
“I represent probably the most Catholic district in the state,” said Sen. Tyson Larson. “My pro-life convictions are steady. Why should a state take a life when I don’t think a human should? I campaigned in support of the death penalty. It wasn’t until now that I really sat down and thought about it, but when I campaigned, I said I support it. I will sustain the governor’s veto because I campaigned on it. But this issue is alive in my heart. This might be the last time I give the state the right to take a life.”
Sen. Al Davis told the chamber that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once observed that she had yet to see a case in which the person getting the death penalty had been well represented.
Ricketts lobbied hard throughout the week to sustain his veto of the repeal bill. In an article if the Omaha World-Herald, he wrote: “In Nebraska, there are only 10 inmates on death row. Unlike California or Texas, which have hundreds on death row, we use the death penalty judiciously and prudently. Retaining the death penalty is not only important to the integrity of criminal prosecutions but also vitally important to good prison management and protecting our prison officers.”
Nebraska last executed a prisoner in 1997 by use of the electric chair. State law now requires execution by lethal injection, but a key drug in its lethal injection protocol became unavailable in December 2013. The governor recently announced that the state had purchased new drugs but they had not yet arrived.
“In many respects, what has happened in Nebraska is a microcosm of the steady national trend away from the death penalty in the United States,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Opinion polls show support for the death penalty at a 40-year low nationwide, having dropped from 80 percent in the mid-1990s to 56 percent in the most recent polls, he said. And, when given a choice, a majority of Americans favor life without possibility of parole over the death penalty, the polls show.
“Opposition to the death penalty is growing among nearly all segments of the American public, but most notably—as reflected in Nebraska’s repeal—it is growing among those who consider themselves to be conservatives,” Dunham said.
Updated to include Ricketts’ response to the vote.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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