State senators will begin debating on March 25 whether Nebraska should have a death penalty for certain first-degree murder cases.
Since the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled a month ago that the state’s sole means of execution was unconstitutional, likening it to an archaic form of torture, the state has been without a way to carry out the death penalty.
Now, said Sen. Brad Ashford, chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, the state needs to think hard about whether it wants to continue to have the death penalty at all.
The bill (LB1063), introduced by Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, would substitute life in prison without the possibility of parole for the death penalty. It also removes a system of determining aggravating and mitigating circumstances in those murder cases.
The Department of Correctional Services would be allowed to determine the appropriate security measures and conditions of confinement for inmates sentenced to life without parole.
Some senators, including Speaker Mike Flood, still believe that electrocution is an appropriate sanction for those who commit the most heinous crimes.
Flood has told senators that the possibility exists if the death penalty is not repealed that the Legislature would be called into special session this summer to address the issue of how to carry out the penalty.
Chambers, who will leave the Legislature at the end of the year because of term limits, said there will be other senators joining him in this attempt to repeal the death penalty. And there will be some interesting information brought forth, he said.
The debate should prove instructive, Chambers said.
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