Nebraska Legislature Passes Death Penalty Repeal

Nebraska’s uni­cam­er­al leg­is­la­ture passed a bill to repeal the state’s death penal­ty and replace it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. On May 20, the bill passed its third and final round of debate on a 32 – 15 vote, receiv­ing bipar­ti­san sup­port. Senator Al Davis said, ​“There are so many rea­sons why we need to elim­i­nate the death penal­ty in Nebraska. It’s fun­da­men­tal­ly unfair, a ter­ri­ble mis­take and bad jus­tice.” Gov. Pete Ricketts has indi­cat­ed that he will veto the bill, but a veto can be over­rid­den with the sup­port of 30 sen­a­tors. The bill is prospec­tive only, so if it becomes law, it will not affect the 11 inmates cur­rent­ly on Nebraska’s death row. Nebraska has exe­cut­ed three pris­on­ers, all by elec­tro­cu­tion, since re-enact­ing the death penal­ty in the 1970s. Its last exe­cu­tion was in December 1997.

(K. Schubert, ​“Conservative Nebraska moves toward death penal­ty repeal,” Reuters, May 20, 2015; Doug Stanglin, ​“Nebraska law­mak­ers vote to abol­ish death penal­ty,” USA Today, May 20, 2015.) See Recent Legislative Activity and Life Without Parole.