The Nebraska Supreme Court heard oral argument on May 25 in a challenge to the proposed November referendum that could reverse the state legislature’s 2015 repeal of the death penalty (vote results pictured left). Christy and Richard Hargesheimer, who oppose the death penalty, are challenging the documents submitted by Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, the organization supporting the referendum, on the grounds that the group violated state law when they failed to list Governor Pete Ricketts as a sponsor of the referendum. Nebraska state law requires proponents of a ballot initiative to disclose all of the sponsors of the proposed referendum. Ricketts vetoed the legislature’s 2015 repeal of the death penalty, but the legislature voted 30-19 to override his veto. Ricketts then personally contributed $200,000 and, in combination, he and his father donated approximately one-third of all the money raised by Nebraskans for the Death Penalty to gather the signatures needed to place the referendum on the ballot. Much of the argument Wednesday focused on the definition of who is a “sponsor” for the purposes of a referendum campaign. Alan Peterson, an attorney for the Hargesheimers, said the sponsor is the primary initiating force, “the initiator, the instigator.” Attorneys for Nebraskans for the Death Penalty argued that the sponsor is someone willing to take legal responsibility for the petition paperwork and said Peterson’s definition was “unworkable and would chill involvement in the democratic process.” Peterson also argued that a key document required to place the referendum on the November ballot had been filed improperly because it was not an affidavit or sworn statement, as required by Nebraska law. A trial court ruled in February in favor of Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, leading to the Hargesheimer’s appeal. [UPDATE: On July 8, 2016, the Nebraska Supreme Court that Governor Ricketts’ financial and other support for the petition drive did not make him a “sponsor” of the referendum, and therefore proponents’ of the referendum did not have to disclose his involvement in the petition drive. The court rejected the Hargesheimers’ efforts to remove the referendum from the ballot.]

(J. Duggan, “Nebraska Supreme Court hears arguments over whether ballot initiative to reinstate death penalty is valid,” Omaha World-Herald, May 26, 2016; L. Pilger, “Attorneys battle over whether death penalty should end up on November ballot,” Lincoln Journal Star, May 26, 2016.) See Recent Legislative Activity. [Read the Nebraska Supreme Court decision in Hargesheimer v. Gale here.]

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