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

[Rick Halperin]

May 21



OKLAHOMA:

Anti death penalty coalition announces former State Senator Connie Johnson as 
new board chair



The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has announced the election 
of its new Board Chair, former Oklahoma State Senator and candidate for 
Oklahoma Democratic Party Vice Chair, Constance "Connie" Johnson. Also newly 
elected is OK-CADP Vice Chair Samuel Jennings, a member of the Oklahoma State 
University History Department in Stillwater.

"We at the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty are overjoyed at the 
election of our new Chair-person, Senator Connie Johnson," said Adam Leathers, 
OK-CADP spokesperson. "We are grateful for everything that our exiting 
Chair-person, Marilynn Knott, has done for our cause and are pleased she will 
still be a part of our coalition.

"We welcome Senator Johnson and believe she will be a superb leader," Leathers 
added. "She has the gifts, passion, and experience to lead the coalition in the 
fight against our state-sponsored murder and by God's grace and her leadership, 
we believe we will make a real difference."

Johnson recently retired after 33-years in the State Senate, representing 
Oklahoma City's predominantly African American "Eastside," where she pursued a 
game changing focus on health/mental health/human services issues that 
disproportionately affect the economic and social well-being of the poor, 
minorities, women, children, and people with disabilities.

The 1st woman and Black in Oklahoma's history to win a major party's US Senate 
nomination in 2014, Johnson contends her aggressive proposals on sentencing 
reform and abolishing the death penalty are beginning to gain traction in 
Oklahoma's conservative climate.

Johnson's advocacy grew out of her Master's Thesis on Women and Incarceration 
in Oklahoma, which is reflective of the high cost and impact on the state's 
budget.

While in the Senate, Johnson served on full Senate Appropriations, Health and 
Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, and was the ranking Democratic 
member of the Health and Human Services Committee. She also served on Public 
Safety, Veterans, Energy, Finance, and Rules standing committees.

Johnson was the 2014 Oklahoma Democratic Party Veteran's Committee "Legislator 
of the Year," and presently chairs the ODP State Affirmative Action Committee. 
She was the 2013 recipient of the OK-CADP Phil Wahl Abolitionist of the Year 
Award.

Johnson is a native Oklahoman, mother of three and grandmother to Savannah and 
Rhyan.

A University of Pennsylvania graduate, Johnson has a Master's Degree in 
Rehabilitation Counseling from Langston University in Langston, OK.

"I am privileged to serve as the 2015-2016 chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to 
Abolish The Death Penalty, for such a time as this in Oklahoma's history," 
Johnson said.

"Our Board's 1st action of the year was unanimously agreeing to pursue a 
statewide aggressive education and awareness campaign, including reinvigorating 
and holding accountable our member organizations to join in acting, and 
establishing chapters throughout the state, as we work to defeat an upcoming 
state question."

"This is an exciting time in Oklahoma; when everything we've advocated will 
become front and center," Johnson added. "I am both honored and excited about 
the opportunity to be a part of the movement and to continue to use my voice to 
bring about solutions for all people."

Jennings' work at OSU focuses on the Catholic Church's challenges in responding 
to modern life. He lives in Oklahoma City with his wife, Angela, who works as 
an immigration attorney for Catholic Charities. Together they have 3 children: 
Robert, Grayson, and Joseph.

"Serving as the Vice-Chair of the OCADP is a great honor and a sizeable 
responsibility," Jennings said. "I look eagerly to working with this wonderful 
community of abolitionists in ridding Oklahoma of Capital Punishment."

Jennings has been an active participant in local politics since college and is 
a member of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

Other officers of the 2015-2016 OK-CADP Board include Secretary, Susan Bishop, 
a member of the Social Justice Committee of Oklahoma City's First Unitarian 
Church; and Treasurer, Mary E. Sine, an educator at Oklahoma City Public 
Schools.

OK-CADP is a grassroots membership organization working to end the death 
penalty in Oklahoma. It engages in outreach, education, and advocacy aimed at 
raising awareness of issues related to the death penalty.

For more information, visit okcadp.org.

(source: city-sentinel.com)








NEBRASKA:

Reactions: Lawmakers and officials on the death penalty repeal vote



Quotes from from state lawmakers and other officials on Wednesday's debate on 
repealing the death penalty.

Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who has worked for 40 years to repeal the death 
penalty: "Nebraska has a chance to step into history, the right side of 
history."

Sen. Dave Schnoor of Scribner, death penalty supporter, said: "You'll be known 
to have taken the side of a senator who said the police is his ISIS, and he'd 
shoot first and ask questions later."

Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete, repeal supporter: "If government shouldn't be trusted 
to manage our health care ... why should it be trusted to carry out an 
irrevocable sentence of death?"

Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte, death penalty supporter: "We have lilly-white 
society, middle class people in here who've never seen evil. We can't pull the 
lever. God made people who will."

Sen. Tanya Cook of Omaha, repeal supporter: "It is indeed a historic day and 
greetings from lilly-white Nebraska who does not support the death penalty."

Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln, repeal supporter: "The way that we can make an 
impact on public safety is not by taking a life."

Sen. Lydia Brasch of Bancroft, a death penalty supporter: "Lady Justice does 
hold an unsheathed sword to carry out justice."

Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg, a repeal supporter: "Is it vengeance? Is it 
retribution? Is it punishment? Is it revenge? We have an alternative in our 
state, in our modern society today, that has not always been there. That 
alternative protects society."

Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha, who led the filibuster in the failed effort to kill 
the repeal bill: "The death penalty should be reserved for those who've 
committed the worst of the worst offenses against their fellow Nebraskans."

Sen. Les Seiler of Hastings, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a repeal 
supporter: "In north Omaha there's been 21 murders since Jan 1. 21 murders with 
the death penalty on the books. What a great deterrent that is."

Reaction to Legislature's vote

Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson: "There have been prior criminal acts 
in our communities, and I know there will be future criminal acts in Nebraska 
that will clearly warrant the use of the death penalty as a consequence of the 
criminal???s heinous, murderous acts. Without the ability to utilize the death 
penalty, the state has weakened its ability to properly administer appropriate 
justice."

Stacy Anderson, executive director, Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death 
Penalty: "We are thrilled that once again legislators from across the political 
and ideological spectrum have joined together to pass a law repealing the death 
penalty. Nebraska???s death penalty is broken. It is time to let it go and 
refocus on meaningful responses to violence."

Statement from Nebraska Catholic Conference: "The Catholic bishops of Nebraska 
commend the Nebraska Legislature for voting (Wednesday) to pass LB 268 and 
replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole. Our support for 
LB 268 reflects the teaching of our faith and our prudential judgment that the 
death penalty cannot be justified in Nebraska at this time. Our support for 
this bill also flows from our prayerful reflection on the words of Jesus Christ 
himself: 'Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may 
be children of your heavenly Father.'"

(source: omaha.com)

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

Nebraskans React to Death Penalty Repeal



Several groups are speaking out after the Nebraska Legislature voted to repeal 
the state's death penalty Wednesday. LB268 passed with a 32-15.

Nebraska Catholic Conference:

"The Catholic Bishops of Nebraska commend the Nebraska Legislature for voting 
to pass LB 268 and replace the death penalty with life in prison without 
parole. Our support for LB 268 reflects the teaching of our faith and our 
prudential judgment that the death penalty cannot be justified in Nebraska at 
this time. Our support for this bill also flows from our prayerful reflection 
on the words of Jesus Christ himself: 'love your enemies, and pray for those 
who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.'"

Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson:

"There have been prior criminal acts in our communities, and I know there will 
be future criminal acts in Nebraska that will clearly warrant the use of the 
death penalty as a consequence of the criminal's heinous, murderous acts. 
Without the ability to utilize the death penalty, the State has weakened its 
ability to properly administer appropriate justice."

Stacy Anderson, head of Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:

"We are thrilled that once again legislators from across the political and 
ideological spectrum have joined together to pass a law repealing the death 
penalty. Nebraska's death penalty is broken. It is time to let it go and 
refocus on meaningful responses to violence."

(source: Nebraska.tv)

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

Nebraska death penalty repeal: Are Republicans shifting their stance?



Nebraska lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill to abolish capital punishment. 
The vote marks a shift toward greater Republican support for ending the death 
penalty.

Nebraska's days as a death penalty state may be coming to an end.

Lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill to repeal capital punishment, making 
Nebraska the 1st conservative state to do so in more than 40 years. The vote - 
which marks a shift toward bipartisan agreement about policy surrounding the 
death penalty - could pave the way for similar decisions in other Republican 
states, as support for capital punishment continues its slow decline across the 
United States.

"The conservative Republicans' positions as expressed in Nebraska are basically 
a microcosm of what's going on with conservatives about the death penalty 
nationwide," says Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, a national nonprofit that provides information and analysis 
related to the death penalty. "Abolition in Nebraska could empower 
conservatives in other 'red' states to move forward because they know it can be 
done."

Procedural, fiscal, and religious concerns are driving the shift, Mr. Dunham 
says.

In Nebraska, where lawmakers voted 32 to 15 in favor of abolition - enough to 
override an expected veto from Gov. Pete Ricketts - the bill's Republican 
supporters appeal to fiscal conservatism, casting the death penalty "as a waste 
of taxpayer money and question whether government can be trusted to manage it," 
the Associated Press reported.

Studies have shown that the costs associated with cases that seek the death 
penalty are often far greater than in cases that don???t. One Seattle 
University report published in January estimated that death penalty trials and 
subsequent appeals can cost taxpayers up to $1 million more.

"What this provides is evidence of the costs of death-penalty cases, empirical 
evidence," the study's lead author Peter Collins told the Seattle Times. "We 
went into it [the study] wanting to remain objective. This is purely about the 
economics; whether or not it's worth the investment is up to the public."

Some Republican lawmakers have also questioned whether support for the death 
penalty conflicts with conservative values about preserving life and opposing 
government intervention.

"It's certainly a matter of conscience, at least in part, but it's also a 
matter of trying to be philosophically consistent," Sen. Laure Ebke, (R) of 
Crete, told the AP. "If government can't be trusted to manage our health care 
... then why should it be trusted to carry out the irrevocable sentence of 
death?"

The system that makes the death penalty possible has also come under scrutiny 
in the face of the scarcity of lethal injection drugs and recent botched 
executions. Nebraska, for instance, lacks the drugs it needs to execute any of 
its 11 death-row inmates, and the last execution in the state was in 1997, The 
Wall Street Journal reported.

"If any other system in our government was as ineffective and inefficient as is 
our death penalty, we conservatives would have gotten rid of it a long, long 
time ago," Sen. Colby Coash, (R) of Lincoln, told the Journal.

Some victims' families have also recently come out against the death penalty, 
saying that the years of appeals did little to help them heal or move forward. 
During the trial of convicted Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Bill 
and Denise Richard, whose 8-year-old was killed in the attack, publicly spoke 
against the prospect of a death sentence for Tsarnaev.

"The continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and 
prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives," they wrote in an essay for 
The Boston Globe. "The minute the defendant fades from our newspapers and TV 
screens is the minute we begin the process of rebuilding our lives and our 
family."

Not everyone is in favor of abolition. Nebraska Gov. Ricketts, who announced 
last week that the state had bought new lethal injection drugs, has pledged to 
veto the bill, requiring an override vote.

"This is a case where the Legislature is completely out of touch with the 
overwhelming majority of Nebraskans that I talk to," Ricketts told the AP.

The most recent Pew Research Center numbers also show that nationally, more 
than 3/4 of Republicans still favor capital punishment, compared to only 40 % 
of Democrats.

Still, conservative opposition to the death penalty is increasingly present. 
Even in Texas - the top state for executions, with more than 400 since 1976 - 
death sentences have been on the decline: The state executed 35 people in 1999 
compared to 10 last year.

"There is no doubt about it. We're seeing a reduction in the use of the death 
penalty in Texas," Kathryn Kase, executive director of the nonprofit Texas 
Defender Service, told The Dallas Morning News earlier this month.

"Here it is May, and we have had only 2 death penalty cases in Texas," Ms. Kase 
added. "And in both, the jury chose life without parole instead. That strikes 
me as really significant."

(source: Christian Science Monitor)

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

If repeal bill becomes law, Nikko Jenkins' death penalty hearing would be moot



Nikko Jenkins has served as the face of many things in the past 20 months: a 
coldblooded killer, a troubled inmate, a defiant defendant.

Now he holds this distinction: His death penalty hearing is the next one 
scheduled for a convicted Nebraska killer - and it's in obvious jeopardy after 
the Legislature voted Wednesday to repeal the death penalty.

Jenkins, 27, is awaiting a hearing July 7 to determine whether he would receive 
the death penalty for shooting and killing Juan Uribe-Pena, Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz, 
Curtis Bradford and Andrea Kruger in August 2013.

A 3-judge panel is to decide his fate after a weeklong hearing.

, But if the death penalty repeal survives, Douglas County Public Defender Tom 
Riley said, Jenkins' hearing is a moot point.

Solicitor General James Smith of the Nebraska Attorney General's Office said 
that if a death sentence is not "final," it would become a life sentence if 
Legislative Bill 268 becomes law. A death sentence does not become final, he 
said, until the State Supreme Court affirms it in the automatic appeal afforded 
for such cases.

The new law would affect anyone awaiting trial or sentencing for 1st-degree 
murder who faces the possibility of a death sentence.

In addition to Jenkins, that would include Anthony J. Garcia, a former 
Creighton pathology resident charged with killing 4 Omahans connected to 
Creighton's pathology department. His trial is pending.

Prosecutors also have said they would seek the death penalty against Roberto 
Martinez-Marinero, who is accused of killing his 45-year-old mother earlier 
this month, dropping his 11-month-old half brother in a dumpster in La Vista, 
then tossing his 4-year-old half brother into the Elkhorn River, where the 
child drowned.

For Jenkins, if LB 268 becomes law, it wouldn't necessarily mean the end of his 
case. If he has no death penalty hearing to face, Jenkins is expected to try to 
withdraw his no-contest pleas - which judges rarely allow.

In turn, Jenkins would face a mandatory life sentence.

(source: omaha.com)

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

A century of death penalty support leads to historic repeal vote



Nebraskans hoping to abolish the state's death penalty cautiously celebrated 
after the historic vote supporting Legislative Bill 268. With a governor's veto 
looming, another round of debate and a last vote is expected next week. The 
history of previous attempts to end the capital punishment in the state makes 
clear final passage is never a sure thing.

Below is a review of this century-long debate, along with some efforts to 
expand the types of crimes worthy of execution.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1900's: Death to Kidnappers!

Since becoming a state, Nebraska law not only specified which crimes deserved 
the death penalty, but the method of execution. State lawmakers, tired of 
botched hangings by county sheriffs and the ugly spectacle of public 
executions, opened the new century by modernizing its method. Lawmakers gave 
the warden of the state penitentiary sole responsibility for carrying out 
executions. Gottlieb Niegenfind was the 1st and news reports indicate 
everything went according to plan.

There was little talk in the Capitol of ending the death penalty. Some states, 
including neighbors Kansas and Colorado, repealed capital punishment but were 
debating the merits of returning to state-sponsored executions.

Bills introduced in Nebraska attempted to add, or at least specify, crimes 
worthy of a death sentence. Train robbery and kidnapping were both considered 
candidates for that list. (At the time the Legislature still consisted of 2 
chambers, the House and Senate.)

Big money kidnappings became a cause for politicians after a sensational 
Nebraska case caught the attention of the entire nation. In 1900 the teenaged 
son of a wealthy Omaha couple was snatched off the street. His father quickly 
paid the $25,000 ransom and his son was returned.

State lawmakers responded by specifying kidnappers who demanded money would 
face a death sentence. (Kidnappings of those who didn't have the means to pay a 
ransom were apparently considered lesser crimes.) Sen. Frank T. Ransom, the 
Omaha lawyer who wrote the bill, determined existing law was "regarded as lame 
and good authorities question whether ... a long conviction would be possible."

One unidentified "prominent member of the Senate" quoted in the McCook Tribune 
stated "to restore capital punishment for any crime less than murder in the 1st 
degree would be a distinct step backward."

The law passed. These days kidnapping would be including among many 
'aggravating circumstances' considered when the courts determined a sentence in 
a capital murder case.

1910s: The Problem with Pardons

Can you be against the executions but in favor of the electric chair? 
Apparently a handful of Nebraska legislators felt they could hold both opinions 
on a single day.

An editorial cartoon from the 1913 Omaha Bee shows capital punishment vying for 
the attention of a state legislator along with 2 other issues of the day, 
giving women the right to vote and legalizing baseball games on Sundays.

The electric chair had become the method of choice in most states where capital 
punishment was legal. Nebraska was one of the few left which relied solely on 
hanging, and State Rep. August Reuter of Otoe County felt it was time to 
modernize its execution chamber. At the same time Rep. John McKissick of Gage 
County sought to end use of the death penalty in most cases. Both bills were 
heard on the same day. According to the correspondent for the Omaha Bee, "the 
house went on record as being opposed to capital punishment and then turned 
around and recommended for passage a bill to electrocute condemned prisoners 
instead of hanging them."

Eventually both the House and Senate kept capital punishment as the law of the 
land and approved the electric chair.

An editorial in the Lincoln State Journal approved. The editor wrote: "The 
substitution of the electric chair as the instrument of death will put Nebraska 
in the company of perhaps a dozen states that have accepted what is considered 
on all sides as a more humane method of inflicting the death penalty."

There were still regular attempts to repeal capital punishment, but the 
controversial and apparently too frequent use of pardons for criminals by 
Nebraska's governors gave supporters of capital punishment ammunition against 
their opponents.

Starting in 1893 the state's governors held the power to parole any prisoner 
who had at least served the minimum sentence permitted by the court. Those 
committing murder could be sprung from jail after 25 years. With a commutation, 
a prisoner could be set free if the governor, and the governor alone, felt a 
sentence had been unfair. Each year governors wielded the authority more and 
more freely. A study completed by the warden of the state penitentiary revealed 
so loose were penalties "a life sentence has meant only about 7 or 8 years and 
the longest term served by any man was only 15 years."

State legislators created the State Prison Board in 1911 to advise the 
governor. That seemed to do little to reduce the number of prisoners being 
released early, and at times without adequate review. Exclusive pardon power 
was taken from the governor in 1920 and decisions were given to a 3-member 
Board of Pardons made up of the governor, attorney general and secretary of 
state.

1920s: Old Time Religion and New Era Women

Grass roots opposition to the death penalty was a rarity in Nebraska so it was 
news when the Women's Christian Temperance Union joined the fight. The WCTU, 
energized by its victory over liquor in America and the arrival of Prohibition, 
making liquor illegal, turned its attention to other causes in its moral 
crusade. "We are also opposed to prize fights, to lynching, to anarchy and to 
capital punishment," read the national organization's annual report.

In January of 1920 a mass meeting was held in Omaha to create an organization 
to muster support and circulate petitions. The initiative was not directed at 
the Legislature but at delegates to the state's constitutional convention. 
Nebraska's constitution had not been updated since 1893 and it was viewed as an 
opportunity to repeal the death penalty. The campaign had little impact. 
Shortly after delegates convened, the North Platte Tribune reported they had 
"apparently taken a definite stand to refuse to knock out the death penalty 
from the constitution."

In December Nebraska used its electric chair for the 1st time. 2 men involved 
in the same crime were executed within 20 minutes of each other. Alson Cole and 
Allen Grammer of Howard County conspired to murder Grammer's mother-in-law for 
her inheritance. 3 years of appeals, stays of executions and legal maneuvering 
outraged death penalty supporters demanding justice be carried out.

The Temperance Union didn't give up, shifting its pressure to state 
legislators. "I think murder is murder, whether committed by the state in 
punishing a crime or by a person in anger or revenge," said Mrs. C.W. Hayes, 
state superintendent of moral education for the WCTU, according to the Dakota 
County Herald. The group sent out at least 100 petitions for signatures.

Gov. Samuel McKelvie supported the bill and recommended once the court issued a 
death sentence it could not be altered. The bill failed within a month. By 1923 
a similar bill did not even make it out of committee.

While he opposed the death penalty, Gov. McKelvie still carried out the law of 
the state of Nebraska, signing the death warrants for 3 men during his term. 
More executions were carried out in the 1920s than in any other year after the 
state took responsibility for carrying out the sentence.

1930s and 1940s: The Quiet Decades

By the beginning of the 1930s Nebraska's death row was empty. Not only would 
there not be a single execution for the next 13 years, there is no record of a 
single murder case ending with a death sentence in the state during the entire 
decade. It's a remarkable fact, considering across America this was the era of 
bootleggers defying Prohibition, gangsters like John Dillinger and Bonnie and 
Clyde, and an epidemic of bank robberies born of the desperate times of the 
Depression.

1945: MacAvoy & The Sanity Test

The case of Joseph MacAvoy unnerved the state in a couple of ways. He was 
convicted of raping and murdering a 16-year old girl in tiny Sutton, Nebraska. 
At a time when pride in the troops headed overseas was at a peak, it was a 
shock to learn the suspect was a military police officer stationed at the 
Harvard Air Base training facility.

After MacAvoy's execution the warden of the state penitentiary told legislators 
it was time to review how the state determined if a person was insane prior to 
facing the electric chair. From the beginning Nebraska law prohibited the 
execution of those diagnosed as mentally incapable of understanding or 
controlling their own actions.

State law left the decision as to whether to conduct a sanity test up to the 
discretion of the person in charge of the prison. The Omaha World-Herald 
reported Warden Neil Olson testified that put "too much responsibility on 1 
man." Olson said he felt MacAvoy was sane and had "no feelings of remorse" 
about the execution, but felt the 3-member Pardons Board should take over that 
responsibility.

The bill passed and the discussion foreshadowed what would become one of the 
most contentious policy issues for lawmakers, attorneys and judges.

There was also little activity in the State Capitol related to the death 
penalty. Headlines about local government were dominated by responses to the 
economic crisis and the headaches of enforcing the national ban on liquor. One 
of the few bills introduced during the 1930s reflected the times. Sen. Arthur 
Newman of Oakland introduced a bill singling out bank robbery as an offense 
worthy of execution. Newman, not coincidentally, ran the bank in Oakland.

Discussion about the merits of capital punishment didn't resume until 1949. By 
then World War II had ended and a handful of sensational murder cases made 
headlines and stirred public emotion again.

1950s: Reconsidering the process

Sen. Hugh Carson made yet another attempt to end the death penalty, but there 
was little popular sentiment to reduce the penalty for 1st-degree murder. 
Another senator, the fiery representative from Scottsbluff, Terry Carpenter, 
even proposed making a 3rd violation of the state's narcotic laws punishable by 
death or a life sentence. In 1955 Gov. Victor Anderson, after witnessing an 
ugly, 3-day prison riot at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, told the press the 
uprising made him "a firm supporter" of capital punishment.

2 murder cases brought new issues about the legal system and capital punishment 
in the state. In 1954 Loyd Grandsinger, a Sioux Indian, had been sentenced to 
die for allegedly participating in the murder of a Nebraska state trooper in 
Cherry County. Grandsinger was released from prison after a federal judge 
determined the trial was unfair because his defense attorney had been 
incompetent. After a 2nd trial the jury found Grandsinger innocent, sparing him 
the electric chair.

No one doubted the guilt of a second murderer, Stanley Nowicki. In 1956 he 
earned the death penalty for hacking his wife to death on a South Omaha 
sidewalk. Because his attorney failed to file his appeal paperwork on time 
Nowicki did not have the chance to challenge the verdict. The courts, and later 
the State Legislature, agreed a paperwork mistake shouldn???t result in an 
automatic death sentence. Nowicki's sentence was changed to life and a change 
in law required all death sentences to be given a review by the state's Supreme 
Court, even without an attorney filing the paperwork.

By the end of the decade some state senators reconsidered their stands on the 
value of the death penalty. Another attempt was made to have the punishment 
removed from state statute. Most notably, Sen. Carpenter, just a couple of 
years after suggesting repeat drug offenders deserved to die, sponsored his own 
bill replacing capital punishment with mandatory life in prison.

Sen. Carpenter, according to the Omaha World-Herald, "argued that life 
imprisonment, forcing a murderer to live with his conscience, is a greater 
penalty than death." A death penalty supporter, Sen. Don Thompson of McCook, 
replied such a person "has no conscience to live with." The vote was not close. 
Only 3 of 26 legislators voting supported ending the death penalty.

2 years later Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate began a mass murder 
spree in Nebraska leaving 11 people dead. It turned international attention on 
the state and its justice system. The execution of Starkweather in 1959 became 
an emblematic case for capital punishment. It would also be the only use of the 
electric chair in the state for another 3 decades.

1960s: An Advocate Governor

Rarely has a Nebraska Governor used the office to campaign against the death 
penalty. Even while the state's chief executives rarely pushed to advance 
executions during their terms of office, most made it clear they supported and 
would not interfere with the legal process when capital cases came before them 
for a final review.

In 1903 Gov. Erza P. Savage told the Legislature, "in our day of boastful 
enlightenment, we find employed instruments which in the darkest ages 
represented the most vicious form of punishment, human savagery, and 
barbarism."

Savage took the unusual step of issuing a 6 month stay of execution for William 
Rhea, age 19, sentenced to hang for murdering a saloonkeeper during a drunken 
robbery attempt. 3 older men involved in the case all blamed Rhea and avoided 
the death sentence. Public opinion was divided. One petition drive asked he be 
spared while another asked justice be done at the gallows. The Legislature 
failed to act and the state executed Rhea later that year on the orders of the 
next governor, William Mickey.

It would be 60 years before another chief executive took action to stop capital 
punishment. Frank Morrison, a Democrat from McCook, started his political 
career as a county prosecutor. He became governor in 1960 and held the office 
for 3 terms.

Initially he took no strong stand. Early in his 1st term Morrison told the 
Omaha World-Herald his mind "hasn't been irrevocably made up" about abolishing 
the death penalty but added if the Legislature passed such a bill, he wouldn't 
veto it. "There is no existing evidence available that capital punishment 
reduces the crime rate or protects society," Morrison said, adding "at least 
none has been called to my attention."

In 1965, Morrison's 2nd term in office, he threw his full support behind a bill 
to end the death penalty sponsored by Sen. John Knight of Lincoln. A similar 
bill had not even made it out of committee 2 years earlier. This time Morrison 
testified before the Judiciary Committee, calling capital punishment "nothing 
more than legalized murder."

The leader of the Police Officers Association of Nebraska, Robert Guenzel, was 
outraged by Morrison's statements, telling the senators "there are certain 
psychotics in crime who are not wanted by society. Execution is the proper way 
to rid the state of these individuals."

Even with the support of Gov. Morrison, there was no support for ending the 
death penalty at a time when crime rates were on the rise in the state's 
largest cities. The Judiciary Committee killed the bill with a 5-1 vote.

The following year Sen. Knight gave up his fight and didn't even submit a death 
penalty bill. He told the World Herald "I'd feel like I'd be batting my head 
against the wall."

1970s The Veto

Historic rulings by the United States Supreme Court did more than any act at 
the State Capitol to dictate law and delay executions during the 1970s. In some 
of the 39 states where the death penalty was in use at the time (most notably 
in the South) attorneys successfully argued capital punishment was not being 
applied equally and fairly. In 1972 the Supreme Court issued a ruling in Furman 
v. Georgia which temporarily invalided the death penalty nationwide.

To retain capital punishment state laws had to be rewritten to include 
guidelines for judges and juries specifying what made a specific crime worth of 
a death sentence. The Nebraska Legislature acted quickly and in 1973 it 
overwhelmingly passed LB 268, which established, according to the Legislative 
Research Division, "mitigating and aggravating circumstances to be weighed in 
determining whether a murder merits the death penalty." A 2nd bill provided for 
a sentencing trial in capital murder cases. Once someone was found guilty, a 
2nd hearing would be held to review whether the acts were sufficient to rise to 
the level of a death sentence. 4 years later Nebraska law added a requirement 
to compare death penalty cases to see if offenses and punishments were 
comparable.

If the changes in law were considered to be legal reforms, they did not quiet 
those who felt the state had no role in taking the life of a person. Sen. Ernie 
Chambers had made eliminating the death penalty one of his highest priorities 
since he was elected to the Legislature to represent his North Omaha district 
in 1970.

His efforts were mostly futile until 1979. It would be the closest the state 
ever came to ending capital punishment.

Several very influential senators, all moderate Republicans, reevaluated their 
position on the issue. Chambers' bill would replace the sentence in capital 
murder cases with a mandatory prison term of 30 years to life.

When the bill reached the full Legislature for debate "the atmosphere ... was 
remarkable because of the quiet and the attention given to senators who spoke," 
according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Sen. Loran Schmit, after 11 years of firm opposition, told the hushed chamber 
"I do not make this decision lightly," as he announced he would support the 
repeal. Sen. Jerome Warner noted the new prison being built in Lincoln included 
a death chamber, which he called "a monument to the past" and said he had 
decided to change his stand on the issue as well.

Supporters of the death penalty, including Sen. Chris Beutler, spoke of "the 
human apprehension of death" as a reason having a death sentence available 
prevented violent crime.

On the 1st round of voting the bill passed 25-17, but once it reached Gov. 
Charles Thone it was vetoed immediately. There were not enough votes to 
override the veto.

1980s: Holding Steady

Nebraska had never executed or even issued a death sentence to a minor, but 
there had been cases in which it might have been considered. Caril Ann Fugate, 
the 14-year-old girlfriend went on trial for murder along with her boyfriend 
Charles Starkweather for their killing spree. Starkweather, 5 years older than 
his companion, got the electric chair while Fugate was spared.

Nonetheless, there was a consensus in legal circles juveniles should not be 
executed and in 1982 the Legislature agreed, passing a law excluding offenders 
under 18 from the risk of a death sentence. (In 1998, in compliance with a U.S. 
Supreme Court ruling, Nebraska also prohibited the execution of mentally 
retarded individuals involved in capital crimes.)

Sen. Elroy Hefner made legislative history in 1983 by making the 1st effort to 
end the use of the electric chair and replacing it with lethal injection, a new 
method gaining support in death penalty states. Hefner contended it "would be 
more humane." The bill never made it out of committee.

1990s: Taking Time to Study

In 1994 the State of Nebraska resumed executions for the 1st time in nearly 30 
years. Harold Otey died in the electric chair after exhausting his appeal 
process. Convicted murderers John Joubert and Robert Williams would follow him 
over the next 3 years.

The introduction of a bill to abolish the death penalty became an annual affair 
in the statehouse. During every legislative session between 1976 and 2008 Sen. 
Chambers introduced a bill calling for an end to executions. They would not 
take hold and on most occasions they did not get to a vote by the full 
Legislature.

2 initiatives in the 1990s brought the issue back to the forefront.

When Sen. Chambers introduced LB 327 to end the death penalty in 1992 it 
arrived with 25 co-sponsors, surpassing early support for the similar bill 
passed (but vetoed) 13 years earlier. After the Judiciary Committee refused to 
advance the bill for a floor vote, a majority of senators rallied to have it 
debated.

Politically, the timing proved to be bad to maintain support for the bill. 
Larry Koch, in his book "The Death of the American Death Penalty" wrote the 
horrific crimes placing Otey, Joubert and Williams on death row loomed large in 
newspapers and television news at the time. Efforts to proceed with their 
long-delayed executions were gaining momentum and the families of their victims 
were lobbying state senators.

It only got worse for supporters. 2 years earlier Sen. Chambers wrote a letter 
to Harold Otey on death row, hinting the killer might not have to spend the 
rest of his life in prison if the death penalty were repealed. "The 'without 
parole' won't mean much in reality," Chambers wrote, "because the Pardons Board 
always will have the power to reduce any sentence." After the letter was made 
public early supporters abandoned the bill.

If the state would not end capital punishment, opponents of the practice asked 
if the state would at least be willing to hold off on any executions until 
there was a study of how fairly it was applied and its costs. The American Bar 
Association made the request of all death penalty states. Nebraska state 
senators would not vote to stall executions, but they did agree to fund a 
study.

The research completed by University of Iowa death penalty researcher David 
Baldus showed there was little evidence of racial discrimination at the time, 
but defendants from the state's population centers were more likely to face a 
capital murder charge than those in rural areas. Also, cases where the victim 
was poor were less likely to see the defendant get the death penalty.

Few state senators felt the research provided any evidence the death penalty 
needed to be reconsidered.

2000 to Present: Lethal Injection

The biggest change in death penalty law did not originate in the State 
Legislature, but from the Nebraska Supreme Court. In a landmark, forcefully 
worded opinion in the case of Mata v. Nebraska the justices ruled the use of 
the electric chair violated the state's constitutional ban on "cruel and 
unusual punishment."

In order to maintain the death penalty the Legislature quickly changed the 
state's method to lethal injection. That change opened up a new battlefield in 
the appeals courts for everyone facing a death sentence in the state.

Since 2000 8 men were added to the population of death row in Nebraska, but not 
a single execution was carried out. A variety of legal challenges accomplished 
what death penalty opponents promoted unsuccessfully in the Legislature: 
blocking, if not actually ending, the death penalty.

Sen. Chambers had one other near miss for his annual capital punishment bill in 
2007. Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood, a death penalty advocate, admitted 
he was caught off guard by the vigorous floor debate. Ultimately the bill 
failed before the full Legislature by a one-vote margin.

Because Nebraskans approved limiting the terms of its state senators, Ernie 
Chambers introduced what some called his last death penalty bill in 2008. It 
also failed. Before departing the capitol that year the senator wished "someday 
people in the Legislature would reach the point where they realize, as those in 
other industrialized countries have, that the death penalty does not advance 
the cause of civilization."

The state moved ahead with plans for its first execution by lethal injection, 
unveiling a new death room in the state penitentiary in Lincoln. The cost of 
switching from electric chair to lethal injection: $50,000

Famed cult-killer Michael Ryan became the scheduled execution using the new 
system. With just weeks before it was scheduled to take place, the Nebraska 
Supreme Court agreed to address concerns about how the death-inducing drugs 
were obtained.

Ultimately all legal paths were cleared but revelations the state had 
improperly obtained its original drugs from a foreign dealer left the 
corrections director without a reliable source. The process was stymied.

Gov. Pete Ricketts announced just days before the latest vote in the 
Legislature he had obtained a new batch of drugs.

In 2013 Chambers was returned to the Legislature by his North Omaha district 
and immediately introduced the bill a new bill to repeal the death penalty. It 
passed on final reading. The legislation was vetoed by then Governor Dave 
Heineman and supporters were unable to gain the support needed for an override.

At the start of the 2015 session it was not clear how a new batch of freshman 
senators might deal with the same issue. Some were surprised support for ending 
executions built over the session, especially among some staunch conservative 
members. On May 20, just after 11 in the morning, 32 state senators voted to 
end capital punishment in the state of Nebraska and send the bill to Gov. 
Ricketts who promised his veto. An override would require at least 30 votes, 
but the 1st hurdle could be a cloture vote to end an anticipated filibuster, 
needing as many as 33 senators to agree.

(source: netnebraska.org)