[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

May 27









ARKANSAS:

Jury, judge impose death penalty for girl's murder



A jury said a man from northwest Arkansas should be executed for raping and 
strangling a 6-year-old girl 2 years ago. A judge agreed on Wednesday and set 
an execution date for Zachary Holly for Nov. 16, 2016.

Jurors deliberated 3 days before recommending death by lethal injection for 
Holly. Despite the judge's order, the execution date likely is years away, 
following years of appeals.

On Nov. 20, 2012, Jersey Bridgeman's body was found in a vacant house next to 
Holly's home in Bentonville. Holly was charged with capital murder, kidnapping, 
rape and burglary. After 2 mental evaluations, a judge ruled he was competent 
to stand trial.

Jersey Bridgeman's mother called police early in the morning to report her 
daughter was missing. Officers found the child's body within 15 minutes in a 
nearby vacant house.

Investigators said Holly and his wife babysat the child the night of her death 
while her mother, DesaRae Bridgeman, and Bridgeman's boyfriend were working at 
a nearby convenience store.

A swab test on Jersey Bridgeman's body showed traces of sperm, according to the 
affidavit. Holly, who was 28 at the time, consented to cheek swabs for DNA 
comparison and also gave authorities the clothing he had worn since going to 
bed the night of Jersey Bridgeman's death, according to the probable cause 
affidavit used as the basis of charges.

DesaRae Bridgeman called police about 6:45 a.m. Jersey Bridgeman and her 
younger sister shared a bed, but Jersey was not there. An autopsy found her 
death occurred sometime after midnight.

While searching for Jersey Bridgeman, an officer noticed the back door to a 
vacant home was open. The child's body was inside. The girl died of 
asphyxiation, according to the probable cause affidavit.

(source: KY3.com)








NEBRASKA----death penalty repealed

Nebraska lawmakers vote to abolish death penalty



With a vote to override a veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts, The Nebraska Legislature 
repealed the death penalty in the state.

With 30 votes needed to override, the motion received 30 votes. 19 senators 
voted with the Governor.

2 senators changed their vote since final passage of LB 268. Wahoo State 
Senator and Jerry Johnson and Gretna State Senator John Murante initially 
supported the repeal, but on the floor Wednesday said they had changed their 
minds.

"I am personally conflicted on the death penalty,' said Murante, who noted he 
was a practicing Catholic. "One truth is undeniable. Taking human life under 
certain circumstances can be justified."

Murante said despite appeals by Archbishop George Lucas and priests, the 
majority of Murante's constituents overwhelmingly support the death penalty.

Governor Ricketts vetoed the bill Tuesday, arguing it was a necessary 
deterrent.

Omaha State Senator Ernie Chambers sponsored LB 268. Wednesday's vote was the 
culmination of a 40-year effort by Chambers to end capital punishment in 
Nebraska.

As debate began, he urged Senators to stand by their decision.

"Don't sacrifice what you are, and what you've stood for in response to 
temporary political pressure of the kind that might discard you later," said 
Chambers.

After the vote, applause broke out in the legislative chamber. Senator Chambers 
thanked colleagues for their vote.

During Wednesday's debate, Omaha Senator Bob Krist said, "Taking a life is not 
the right way for the state to maintain the safety of its citizens."

"This program is broken," said Lincoln Senator Colby Coash. "Executions are 
done. LB 268 is the way to put it in our past... Now is the time to do it."

Nebraska had not executed a prisoner since 1997, when the electric chair was 
used. It hasn't imposed the punishment under the lethal injection process now 
required by state law.

(source: KETV news)

*******************

Death Penalty: Arguments Align



A coalition of motives have come together in Nebraska to do what might have 
seemed unthinkable a few months ago: repeal the state's death penalty.

This happened last week when the Nebraska Legislature - a unicameral body 
governing a very conservative state - voted 32-15 to repeal the penalty. Gov. 
Pete Ricketts has promised to veto the legislation, but the 32-15 margin is 
veto-proof. Thus, in order for the measure to be stopped, some lawmakers are 
going to have to change their minds.

But the fact that it has even reached this point may be surprising to a lot of 
people.

It also may stir hopes in South Dakota that the same thing can happen here.

Most of us are very familiar with the arguments for having a death penalty on 
the books, since this debate springs up regularly in both Nebraska and South 
Dakota and the efforts at repeal are usually defeated with those same talking 
points.

But the Nebraska case seems to turn the argument on its ideological head.

Conservatives who voted for the repeal cited their own personal principles, 
such bureaucratic overreach and fiscal recklessness involved in the process. 
According to Newsweek, they also question whether the government should have 
the authority to take a life, even in a case involving a capital crime.

The process has also been criticized by conservatives such as columnist George 
Will as a protracted and flawed process. The former prolongs the emotional 
suffering and doubt of families for years; the latter cannot be corrected once 
the deed is done.

So, in some ways, this has become a philosophical alignment, in which both 
conservative and liberal philosophies have melded together. The aforementioned 
points sound a lot like the progressive arguments that have heretofore failed 
to repeal the penalty.

And so, the future of the death penalty in Nebraska, which has not conducted an 
execution in 18 years and has 10 inmates awaiting execution, seems to be very 
much in doubt.

Could the same be true in South Dakota?

That's a big question and a big leap, but the Nebraska case sheds a new, 
nonpartisan light on the issue. Lawmakers tried to repeal the penalty this past 
session with Senate Bill 121, but the idea was mowed down in committee.

The arguments that failed in Pierre sounded somewhat like the arguments that 
succeeded in Lincoln "I guess the question that we ask ourselves on Senate Bill 
121 is, 'Do we want a government so big, so powerful, they can decide life and 
death?'" stated District 18 Sen. Bernie Hunhoff (D) of Yankton in an Associated 
Press report.

That argument was echoed by Will in a column about the "withering" of the death 
penalty this past week: "The power to inflict death cloaks government with a 
majesty and pretense of infallibility discordant with conservatism."

None of this suggests that the death penalty will be repealed next winter in 
South Dakota, where 3 people currently sit on death row. A lot has to change 
before that can take place.

But change can come quickly and in the unlikeliest places. Nebraska will be a 
rallying point for future repeal efforts to come.

(source: Associated Press )