{"id":27487,"date":"2020-02-14T08:48:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T14:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27487"},"modified":"2020-02-14T08:48:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T14:48:39","slug":"constitutional-amendment-could-result-in-shorter-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27487","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional amendment could result in shorter sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

A proposed state constitutional amendment that would give the courts more flexibility in sentencing was heard by the Judiciary Committee Feb. 13.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John McCollister<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LR281CA, sponsored by Omaha Sen. John McCollister, would amend the Nebraska Constitution to allow lawmakers to enact legislation permitting courts to reduce final sentences.<\/p>\n

If passed, the resolution would place the question on the November 2020 general election ballot.<\/p>\n

McCollister said the proposal would allow a trial court judge to review an inmate\u2019s sentence, similar to the authority currently invested in the state Board of Pardons.<\/p>\n

\u201cSentencing reform is a major focus of our efforts here in Nebraska and nationwide to improve the criminal justice system,\u201d he said. \u201cLR281CA would allow the Legislature to continue the progress we\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Riley, representing the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, spoke in favor of the measure. The state has to stop thinking about the criminal justice system as a \u201clock them up and throw away the key\u201d situation, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Inmates] may be eligible for parole when they\u2019re [old], but the Nebraska Supreme Court isn\u2019t going to do anything about excessive sentences,\u201d Riley said. \u2018They\u2019ve made it quite clear that as long as a sentence is imposed within the statutory guidelines, they\u2019re not going to touch it unless there\u2019s been an extreme abuse of discretion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposing LR281CA was Corey O\u2019Brien, speaking on behalf of the state attorney general\u2019s office. The measure would create a separation of powers conflict, he said, by investing authority in the court system that currently is reserved only for the executive branch.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A proposed state constitutional amendment that would give the courts more flexibility in sentencing was heard by the Judiciary Committee Feb. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[156],"class_list":["post-27487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-john-mccollister"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27487","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=27487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27488,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27487\/revisions\/27488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}