Senators spent May 13 debating a bill that would repeal Nebraska\u2019s death penalty but adjourned before taking a final vote on the bill.<\/p>\n
LB543, as introduced by Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, would replace death penalty provisions with the sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The provisions of the bill would apply retroactively to inmates currently serving capital punishment sentences. It was the 37th time that Chambers has introduced such legislation.<\/p>\n
The bill also would allow the court to require payment to a victim\u2019s estate for any pain and suffering to the victim caused by the offense.<\/p>\n
Chambers said the death penalty is random, arbitrary and has no clear standards for how it is applied statewide. He said the \u201cvilest\u201d criminal still is a human being who should be treated with basic human dignity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome who oppose the bill may wave the bloody shirt and try to play on emotions of horrendous crimes,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cPeople who say they support the death penalty do not know what a grotesque ceremony it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash offered an amendment that he said was technical and would eliminate language in statute referring to \u201ccapital punishment\u201d and replace it with \u201clife without the possibility of parole.\u201d The amendment was later divided into three components.<\/p>\n
Chambers supported the amendment, saying it would streamline the bill.<\/p>\n
Omaha Sen. Beau McCoy opposed the bill and the divided amendment. He offered, and later withdrew, a motion to bracket the bill until June 5, 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are communities that have experienced the most heinous crimes,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe that the individuals on death row belong there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scottsbluff Sen. John Harms supported the bracket motion and cited details of a homicide that occurred in his community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some crimes that are so heinous they deserve death,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chambers disagreed and said the term \u201cheinous\u201d itself is ambiguous and often misused in homicide cases. The federal court has overturned many death penalty cases because the language was inappropriately utilized during the trial, he said.<\/p>\n
Kearney Sen. Galen Hadley\u2014who once supported the death penalty\u2014opposed the bracket motion, saying his convictions about the death penalty have evolved. He said that he attended the execution in support of the death penalty for Charles Starkweather, who murdered 11 people in Nebraska and Wyoming in the 1950s. Since that time, he said, studies have suggested that the death penalty is applied disproportionately, so he no longer supports it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore minorities are on death row than white people,\u201d Hadley said. \u201cIf the victim was a white person, then the chances of the perpetrator getting the death penalty are significantly higher than if the victim was a minority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop also opposed the bracket motion, saying the death penalty should be repealed because such sentences cost the state roughly three times more than a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n
Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad said death penalty cases are costly because they are unique, litigated differently and must have three separate trials. At each stage there are at least 40 different grounds for appeal, she said, and without the death sentence the cost involved in the second and third trials would be eliminated.<\/p>\n
Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford also offered a motion to bracket the bill in an attempt to gauge how senators would vote on the bill and the Coash amendments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis vote, in my view, is a vote in favor of or against LB543, and that is why I brought the motion,\u201d he said. \u201cA vote for the bracket motion is a vote against the bill and a vote against the bracket motion is a vote for the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
The motion failed on an 18-26 vote. Twenty-five votes are required for passage of a bill; thirty are needed to override a governor\u2019s veto.<\/p>\n
Holdrege Sen. Tom Carlson offered an amendment, adopted 26-6, which would add the following language: Life is the most valuable possession of a human being. The State of Nebraska should exercise utmost care to protect its residents\u2019 lives, born and unborn, from homicide, accident and arbitrary taking by the state.<\/p>\n
If the death penalty were repealed, Carlson said, concern about taking innocent lives should be extended to include unborn babies.<\/p>\n
Chambers opposed the amendment and called it vindictive and irrelevant. He filed a motion to reconsider the vote taken on the amendment, which was adopted 29-5.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are talking about abortion,\u201d he said, \u201cthere is no arbitrary taking by the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlson withdrew his amendment and the Legislature adjourned before taking further votes. Several amendments are pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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