{"id":36123,"date":"2024-03-22T15:45:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T21:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=36123"},"modified":"2024-03-22T15:45:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T21:45:01","slug":"senators-advance-veteran-justice-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=36123","title":{"rendered":"Senators advance veteran justice program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebraska would develop a justice program aimed specifically at the needs of the state\u2019s veterans under a bill advanced from general file March 21.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Tom Brewer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As introduced last session by Gordon Sen. Tom Brewer, LB253 would have created a second law enforcement academy in western Nebraska. A Judiciary Committee amendment, adopted 34-0, gutted the bill and replaced it with the contents of a proposal from Brewer considered this session to establish a veteran justice program.<\/p>\n

Brewer said the program would not be a \u201cfree ride\u201d for veterans to commit crimes, but simply would ensure that the criminal justice system acknowledges how a veteran\u2019s service can lead to criminal behavior and attempt to address those issues.<\/p>\n

Under the committee amendment, a veteran must be eligible for probation to participate in the veteran justice program, which would use deferred judgments. Violation of a protection order, domestic violence and driving under the influence offenses would not be categorically excluded.<\/p>\n

A veteran would qualify if there is reason to believe that a condition from military service contributed to the offense and a presumption would be created that an eligible veteran would be allowed to participate. The presumption could be overcome only if a judge determines that allowing the veteran to participate would not reasonably ensure public safety.<\/p>\n

Upon successful completion, a veteran would be entitled to request that the court dismiss the action without entry of judgment. Courts also would be required to consider veteran status as a mitigating factor at sentencing.<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne, chairperson of the committee, said the bill essentially would put \u201cprobation on the front end\u201d and allow veterans a chance to overcome their struggles if they commit crimes related to the lingering effects of their service.<\/p>\n

“It’s easy to support a veteran on Veterans Day, it’s easy on Memorial Day to say we support those who serve our country,” Wayne said. “What’s hard is when they make a mistake that is directly tied to what we put them through.”<\/p>\n

Kearney Sen. John Lowe expressed concern that the bill \u201cgoes way too far\u201d and could apply to serious crimes. In addition, he said, if a judgment is not entered in a case, courts would lack important information if a veteran were to offend again.<\/p>\n

Wayne said he would work on the bill with various stakeholders before the next round of debate.<\/p>\n

Following adoption of the committee amendment, senators gave LB253 first-round approval on a 38-0 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraska would develop a justice program aimed specifically at the needs of the state\u2019s veterans under a bill advanced from general file March 21.<\/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":[174],"class_list":["post-36123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-tom-brewer"],"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\/36123","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=36123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36125,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36123\/revisions\/36125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}