As Nebraska​’s leg­is­la­ture began debate on a bill to repeal the death penal­ty, one sen­a­tor explained how his views on the issue had evolved. In an op-ed in the Lincoln Journal Star, Sen. Colby Coash said that his par­tic­i­pa­tion with a group cel­e­brat­ing an exe­cu­tion led him to oppose the death penal­ty: ​“I made a deci­sion dur­ing my shame that I would no longer be a part of some­one’s death.” A sec­ond influ­ence was his con­ver­sa­tions with rel­a­tives of mur­der vic­tims. He quot­ed one fam­i­ly mem­ber, Merriam Thimm-Kelle, who tes­ti­fied to the leg­is­la­ture about her expe­ri­ence, ​“Death penal­ty sup­port­ers say that car­ry­ing out the death penal­ty is fam­i­ly clo­sure. Closure is a myth. The death penal­ty does absolute­ly noth­ing for fam­i­lies except more pain.” On March 19, the Judiciary Committee approved a repeal bill with­out dis­sent. A vote in the entire uni­cam­er­al leg­is­la­ture may take place on May 13. (UPDATE: The repeal bill was stopped by a fil­i­buster on May 14. The vote to end the fil­i­buster was 28 – 21, but 33 votes were need­ed.) Read the full op-ed below.

Local View: Why I support repeal of death penalty

BY SEN. COLBY COASH

Before my pol­i­cy­mak­ing role, I had nev­er giv­en much con­sid­er­a­tion to the mat­ter. It seemed rea­son­able. It felt right to be on the side of jus­tice for the vic­tim. An ​“eye for an eye” had a nice ring to it. The phrase appealed to my sense of justice.

That sense of jus­tice, how­ev­er, changed when I began to meet the rel­a­tives of actual victims.

More than my expe­ri­ences as a sen­a­tor, how­ev­er, one event changed my heart, mind and my out­look on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. On Sept. 3, 1994, as a col­lege fresh­man, I took a short trip to the Nebraska Penitentiary to bear wit­ness in the park­ing lot of the exe­cu­tion of Willie Otey.

I can only describe what I saw there as ugly. If you did­n’t know where you were, you might have thought you were at a New Year’s Eve par­ty. There was a band play­ing music, a bar­be­cue, cool­ers of beer and an offi­cial count­down to mid­night when he would be exe­cut­ed. There was a gen­uine cel­e­bra­to­ry nature of the event. There were peo­ple bang­ing pots and pans and chant­i­ng ​“fry him, fry him.”

A snow fence was erect­ed to sep­a­rate this group from anoth­er con­sist­ing of qui­et, praying observers.

That night, I par­tied, I chant­ed, chugged beer and at mid­night I cel­e­brat­ed some­one’s death. Along with hun­dreds of oth­ers, I toast­ed a mid­night clock stroke of justice.

That was the event that changed my view. I attempt no per­sua­sion of oth­ers on this issue. My posi­tion is the result of my expe­ri­ence. I made a deci­sion dur­ing my shame that I would no longer be a part of some­one’s death. Thankfully, I don’t think any­one else will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to play a role in a similar way.

My changed sense of jus­tice has been fur­ther rein­forced by my fre­quent con­ver­sa­tions with Merriam Thimm-Kelle. Her broth­er’s killer sits on death row. Every time an exe­cu­tion date is set, she feels she will have jus­tice. When that date comes and goes her fam­i­ly is again forced to relive her broth­er’s mur­der with atten­tion going to the condemned.

As she stat­ed in our hear­ing: ​“Our sen­tence has been going on for over 25 years and there’s been no exe­cu­tion. … Every appeal and on and on, every­thing about the hor­ri­ble death again, year in, year out. If exe­cu­tion ever comes, it will be anoth­er day about Michael Ryan and noth­ing about (my broth­er) Jim. … Death penal­ty sup­port­ers say that car­ry­ing out the death penal­ty is fam­i­ly clo­sure. Closure is a myth. The death penal­ty does absolute­ly noth­ing for fam­i­lies except more pain.”

I ask, ​“Where is the jus­tice?” I did­n’t find it as a young col­lege stu­dent, and find no jus­tice as a senator.

–Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln is serv­ing his sec­ond term rep­re­sent­ing leg­isla­tive District 27.

(C. Coash, ​“Local View: Why I sup­port repeal of death penal­ty,” Lincoln Journal Star, May 13, 2013). See New Voices and Recent Legislation.

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