Nebraska’s unicameral legislature recently voted 30-13 in favor of repealing the State’s death penalty, advancing the bill to a second round of legislative review. (In Nebraska, a bill must pass three times before it is sent to the Governor.) A majority (17 out of 30) of Republican legislators voted in favor of the bill, which was also supported by 12 Democrats and one Independent legislator. Sen. Colby Coash (R-Lincoln), said, “If any other system in our government was as ineffective and inefficient as is our death penalty, we conservatives would have gotten rid of it a long, long time ago.” Sen. Tommy Garrett (R-Papillion) said he was once a “staunch proponent” of capital punishment, but, “I’ve come to believe that the death penalty is simply not good government.” A Washington Times op-ed by conservative commentator Drew Johnson noted that Nebraska’s repeal bill has support from victims’ families, the Catholic Bishops of Nebraska, and Nebraska Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty. Johnson also pointed to the DNA exonerations of the “Beatrice Six,” who gave coerced confessions and pleas after being threatened with the death penalty, as evidence that “government has no business exercising the power to kill its residents, whether in Nebraska or elsewhere.” A recent Pew poll showed that support for the death penalty among conservative Republicans had dropped by 7 percentage points since 2011.

(A. Jones, “Republican Stance on Death Penalty Shifts,” Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2014; D. Johnson, “Nebraska vote signals growing conservative support for ending death penalty,” Washington Times, April 23, 2015.) See New Voices and Recent Legislative Activity.

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