{"id":26103,"date":"2019-04-25T15:02:40","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T21:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=26103"},"modified":"2019-04-25T15:02:40","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T21:02:40","slug":"repeal-of-death-penalty-fails-to-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=26103","title":{"rendered":"Repeal of death penalty fails to advance"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill that would repeal Nebraska\u2019s death penalty failed to advance from general file April 25.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Ernie Chambers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sponsored by Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, LB44 would replace death penalty provisions with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The bill would apply retroactively to inmates currently serving capital punishment sentences.<\/p>\n

The bill would not prevent a sentencing court from ordering restitution, or alter the authority of the state Department of Correctional Services to determine appropriate measures for incarceration of an offender.<\/p>\n

The Legislature abolished the death penalty in 2015, overriding a veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts. Voters then rejected the repeal measure in the 2016 general election, maintaining capital punishment in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

People\u2019s minds are made up on the issue of the death penalty, Chambers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing I say will change anybody\u2019s mind, but I have to do everything I can as long as I\u2019m in the Legislature to try and stop the state from killing its residents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop said he understands why people might want to retain the death penalty, but that it is a policy that is applied inconsistently and ineffectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a whole host of people who have committed heinous crimes who never got the death penalty [because] it was taken off the table,\u201d he said. \u201cI have to support the bill because … my moral compass points in the direction of repeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The death penalty in Nebraska is a settled issue, said Peru Sen. Julie Slama who spoke in opposition to the bill. She said 92 out of 93 counties voted to retain the death penalty in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake, the critical aspect of today\u2019s debate is not the merits of the death penalty,\u201d Slama said. \u201cIt\u2019s about us as a legislative body overriding the voice of Nebraskans a mere two years after they spoke loud and clear [on the death penalty].\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln Sen. Suzanne Geist also opposed LB44. She said she understands all sides of the argument, but that she ultimately believes the death penalty is justified in certain cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who have done such egregious things to innocent human beings who have value and who have left families in shambles,\u201d Geist said. \u201cI believe that there is a tipping point that you can commit such an egregious act against another human being that it requires the taking of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senators voted 17-25 on advancement of LB44 to select file, eight votes short of the number required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill that would repeal Nebraska\u2019s death penalty failed to advance from general file April 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-26103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-ernie-chambers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/LB44Chambers4-25-19a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26104,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26103\/revisions\/26104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}