Nebraska Senate overrides gov's veto, abolishes death penalty

[Anti Federalist]

Nebraska lawmakers abolish the death penalty, narrowly overriding governor’s veto

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/p...death-penalty/

Nebraska lawmakers voted to abolish the death penalty Wednesday, overriding a veto from the governor and making that state the 19th in the country to ban capital punishment.

The narrow vote in Lincoln on Wednesday made Nebraska the first state in two years to formally abandon the death penalty, a decision that comes amid a decline in executions and roiling uncertainty regarding how to carry out lethal injections.

Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) had been a vocal critic of the bill before he vetoed it on Tuesday afternoon, calling it “cruel” to the relatives of the victims of people sentenced to death in a letter to the legislature.

The state’s lawmakers voted last week to abolish the death penalty, passing the measure with enough support to override a veto that Ricketts had said was coming.

In the unicameral Nebraska legislature, it takes 30 of the 49 senators to override the veto. Last week, 32 senators voted to repeal the death penalty. A spokesman for Ricketts said that he had been traveling the state to visit senators in an effort to sustain his veto.

<snip>

“My words cannot express how appalled I am that we have lost a critical tool to protect law enforcement and Nebraska families,” Ricketts said in the statement. “While the legislature has lost touch with the citizens of Nebraska, I will continue to stand with Nebraskans and law enforcement on this important issue.”

The Nebraska’s passage was unusual, because while numerous states have abolished or halted capital punishment in recent years, they have generally been more politically blue. Nebraska, meanwhile, is as red as it gets, and the legislature is largely conservative. The last conservative state to abolish the death penalty was North Dakota in 1973.

[Anti Federalist]

I am as jaded and cynical as they come, with regard to the political process.

But it's small victories like this that indicate at least some progress is possible and is being made.

And that every little bit of hell raising and awareness is making the difference.

Keep pushing.

[Origanalist]

I heard this on the way home. Looks like guvna Ricketts just couldn't make the case that he needs to kill people.

[specsaregood]

A spokesman for Ricketts said that he had been traveling the state to visit senators in an effort to sustain his veto.

that right there takes a special kind of $#@!.

[Occam's Banana]

Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) had been a vocal critic of the bill before he vetoed it on Tuesday afternoon, calling it “cruel” to the relatives of the victims of people sentenced to death in a letter to the legislature.

Why am I not surprised that a scion of the State thinks it is "cruel" to NOT have people put to death by the State ... ?

[donnay]

Good hope more will follow. Too many innocent people rot in jail or have died because the justice system is so corrupt.

[r3volution 3.0]

Too bad.

Lots of criminals richly deserving of execution will keep breathing, and at enormous taxpayer expense.

[JohnCifelli1]

It costs more To execute a criminal than it does to keep him alive.

[Anti Federalist]

Too bad.

Lots of criminals richly deserving of execution will keep breathing, and at enormous taxpayer expense.

How many innocent people are you willing to see die, in order to get "justice"?

[jclay2]

I am as jaded and cynical as they come, with regard to the political process.

But it's small victories like this that indicate at least some progress is possible and is being made.

And that every little bit of hell raising and awareness is making the difference.

Keep pushing.

I'll raise you a bottle of jaded: This is a double edged sword. While I can see reasons for seeing this as a good thing, in general, I can also see it as a harbinger that the nation is losing its moral footing. I am more making the comment that our nation has developed a fondness for protecting truly sick criminals instead of issuing judgments whose finality is sufficient for their crimes.

Although, maybe that's where jury nullification should kick in...when a citizen takes it upon himself to give the violent offender his just end: http://abcnews.go.com/US/charges-tex...ry?id=16612071

[HVACTech]

How many innocent people are you willing to see die, in order to get "justice"?

innocent people

have nothing to do with crimes of violence.

please restate your query.
sans emotion.

[TaftFan]

I would limit it, not abolish it. It needs stricter scrutiny.

[Christian Liberty]

Why am I not surprised that a scion of the State thinks it is "cruel" to NOT have people put to death by the State ... ?

I actually agree with him, though I'm sort of ashamed that I'm agreeing with "law enforcement" on a topic. Genesis 9:6 though

[pao]

[QUOTE=HVACTech;5881149]

have nothing to do with crimes of violence.

please restate your query.
sans emotion. [/QUOTE

Walking through the Tombstone, AZ cemetery you will see a number of headstones with a name and the words "hung by mistake". I'm pretty sure this has been happening for a long time.

[Christian Liberty]

Good hope more will follow. Too many innocent people rot in jail or have died because the justice system is so corrupt.

And those people will still rot in jail. This isn't the solution. The solutions are in the Bible.

[William Tell]

Lots of good points from different folks with different angles on this thread. I do want to point out though, that a life sentence is in many ways just a slow death sentence. Of course, that's not entirely true, some folks are getting out of prison in the middle of their sentences when new evidence surfaces. On the other hand, an evil nurse in Texas who murdered a ton of kids is about to be free again. Which is something I find sickening as well.

[Christian Liberty]

Lots of good points from different folks with different angles on this thread. I do want to point out though, that a life sentence is in many ways just a slow death sentence. Of course, that's not entirely true, some folks are getting out of prison in the middle of their sentences when new evidence surfaces. On the other hand, an evil nurse in Texas who murdered a ton of kids is about to be free again. Which is something I find sickening as well.

Yeah. I get that the death penalty is often misused by the American courts, but what don't they misuse? Should we therefore conclude that no crimes should be punished at all? No, we reform our courts to comply with Biblical justice, rather than the tyrannical abuses that we see today.

[Anti Federalist]

have nothing to do with crimes of violence.

please restate your query.

sans emotion.

Of course they don't.

Innocent people are innocent.

What emotion?

I asked a simple question.

Right now, the system gets it wrong about ten percent of the time in capital punishment cases.

So, ten percent of executions being innocent people is OK?

[wizardwatson]

Too bad.

Lots of criminals richly deserving of execution will keep breathing, and at enormous taxpayer expense.

In all their lamentations soundeth vengeance, in all their eulogies is maleficence; and being judge seemeth to them bliss.

But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

They are people of bad race and lineage; out of their countenances peer the hangman and the sleuth-hound.

Distrust all those who talk much of their justice! Verily, in their souls not only honey is lacking.

And when they call themselves "the good and just," forget not, that for them to be Pharisees, nothing is lacking but--power!

- Nietzsche : Thus Spake Zarathustra

[phill4paul]

Good.

In April 2015, the Death Penalty Information Center said that there had been 152 exonerations of prisoners on death row in the United States since 1973.[10]

1970–1979[edit]
1977

Delbert Tibbs, Florida. Convicted 1974.[11]
1980–1989[edit]
1987

Joseph Green Brown. He was re-arrested in 2012 and charged with another murder in North Carolina.[12]
Perry Cobb. Illinois. Convicted October 15, 1979.[13]
Darby J. Tillis. Illinois. Convicted October 15, 1979. Perry Cobb and Darby Tillis, two African American men were convicted of First Degree Murder after a third trial by an all-white jury. The primary witness in the case, Phyllis Santini, was determined to be an accomplice of the actual killer by the Illinois Supreme Court. The Judge in the case, Thomas J. Maloney was later convicted of accepting bribes.[14]
1989

Randall Dale Adams, Texas (Ex Parte Adams, 768 S.W.2d 281) (Tex. Crim App. 1989). Convicted 1977.[15][16] The Adams case was the subject of The Thin Blue Line (1988 film).
On April 8, 2010, former death row inmate Timothy B. Hennis, once exonerated in 1989, was reconvicted of a triple murder, thereby dropping him from the list of those exonerated.[17]
1990–1999[edit]
1993

Gregory R. Wilhoit Oklahoma. Convicted 1987. Along with Ron Williamson, Wilhoit later became the subject of John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.[18]
1995

Robert Charles Cruz, Illinois. Convicted 1966. (Cruz disappeared in 1997. His remains were found in 2007.[19])
1996

Joseph Burrows, Illinois. Convicted 1989. Joseph Burrows was released from death row after his attorney Kathleen Zellner persuaded the real killer to confess at the post-conviction hearing, and Peter Rooney, a reporter for the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, obtained a recantation from a key witness.[20] The Burrows case was the subject of a book by Rooney titled Die Free: A True Story of Murder, Betrayal and Miscarried Justice.
Gary Gauger Illinois. Convicted 1995.[21]
1999

Shareef Cousin, Louisiana (Louisiana v. Cousin, 710 So. 2d 1065 (1998)). Convicted 1996.[22]
Anthony Porter, Illinois. Convicted 1983.[23]
Ron Williamson, Oklahoma. Convicted 1988. Along with Gregory R. Wilhoit, Williamson later became the inspiration for and subject of John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.[18]
2000–2009[edit]
2000

Earl Washington, Jr., Virginia (pardoned). Convicted 1994 (1984, without life sentence).[24]
2002

Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon, Florida. Convicted 1984.[25][26][27]
Ray Krone, Arizona (State v. Krone, 897 P.2d 621 (Ariz. 1995) (en banc)). Convicted 1992.[28][29]
2003

Nicholas Yarris, Pennsylvania Convicted 1982.[30]
2004

Alan Gell, North Carolina. Convicted 1995[31]
2008

Glen Edward Chapman, North Carolina. Convicted 1995.[32]
Levon "Bo" Jones, North Carolina. Convicted 1993.[33]
Michael Blair, Texas. Convicted 1994.[34][35][36]
2009

Nathson Fields, Illinois. Convicted 1986.[37]
Paul House, Tennessee. Convicted 1986.[38][39]
Daniel Wade Moore, Alabama. Convicted 2002.[40]
Ronald Kitchen, Illinois. Convicted 1988.[41]
Michael Toney, Texas. Convicted 1999. Toney later died in a car accident on October 3, 2009, just one month and a day after his exoneration.[42]
2010–2015[edit]
2010

Joe D'Ambrosio, Ohio. Convicted 1989. While he was freed in 2010, but not yet exonerated, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the state of Ohio challenging the unconditional writ of habeas corpus and bar to D'Ambrosio's re-prosecution on January 23, 2012, nearly 2 years later, making D'Ambrosio the 140th death row exoneree since 1973.[43][44]
Anthony Graves, Texas. Convicted 1994.[45]
2011

Gussie Vann, Tennessee. Convicted 1994.[46]
2012

Damon Thibodeaux, Louisiana. Convicted 1997.[47]
Seth Penalver, Florida. Convicted 1994.[48]
2013

Reginald Griffin, Missouri. Convicted 1983.[49]
2014

Glenn Ford, Louisiana. Convicted 1984.[50]
Carl Dausch, Florida. Convicted 2011.[51]
Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown, North Carolina. Convicted 1984.[52]
Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman, Ohio. Convicted 1975.[53]
Kwame Ajamu (formerly Ronnie Bridgeman), Ohio. Convicted 1975.[54]
2015

Debra Milke, Arizona. Convicted 1990.[55]
Anthony Ray Hinton, Alabama. Convicted 1985.[56]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...th_row_inmates

[Occam's Banana]

Yeah. I get that the death penalty is often misused by the American courts, but what don't they misuse? Should we therefore conclude that no crimes should be punished at all? No, we reform our courts to comply with Biblical justice, rather than the tyrannical abuses that we see today.

With my apologies to Burke: "In vain you tell me that the Death Penalty is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse!"

No matter how "reformed" any system may be - and no matter how free it might be of "abuses" - mistakes will always be made, if only in honest error. Thus, any system that incorporates the death penalty will always put some number of innocents to death. This fact alone exposes the supreme and abominable hypocrisy inherent in the death penalty - that innocent people will inevitably be put to death in the name of "justice" and of punishing those who have killed (or otherwise victimized) the innocent ...

Your implication that any of this means "that no crimes should be punished at all" is nonsensical. Other punishments can be mitigated, ameliorated or even wholly reversed, should they be proven to have been applied in error. The death penalty cannot.

To paraphrase Tolkien: "Deserves to die? I dare say he does! Many who live deserve to die. And many who die deserve to live. Can you give them life? No? Then do not be so eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wisest cannot judge unerringly in all things ..."

[Christian Liberty]

With my apologies to Burke: "In vain you tell me that the Death Penalty is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse!"

No matter how "reformed" any system may be - and no matter how free it might be of "abuses" - mistakes will always be made, if only in honest error. Thus, any system that incorporates the death penalty will always put some number of innocents to death. This fact alone exposes the supreme and abominable hypocrisy inherent in the death penalty - that innocent people will inevitably be put to death in the name of "justice" and of punishing those who have killed (or otherwise victimized) the innocent ...

Your implication that any of this means "that no crimes should be punished at all" is nonsensical. Other punishments can be mitigated, ameliorated or even wholly reversed, should they be proven to have been applied in error. The death penalty cannot.

To paraphrase Tolkien: "Deserves to die? I dare say he does! Many who live deserve to die. And many who die deserve to live. Can you give them life? No? Then do not be so eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wisest cannot judge unerringly in all things ..."

There's going to be an epistemological divide here, seeing as my answer to this is "But what does the Bible say?"

[William Tell]

There's going to be an epistemological divide here, seeing as my answer to this is "But what does the Bible say?"

We do not have the death penalty for those who falsely accuse others of capital crimes like in the bible, though.

[fisharmor]

In April 2015, the Death Penalty Information Center said that there had been 152 exonerations of prisoners on death row in the United States since 1973.[10]

That's just the ones that were PROVED innocent.

We do not have the death penalty for those who falsely accuse others of capital crimes like in the bible, though.

Yeah, I'd be pretty comfortable with the death penalty if every one of the arresting officers, prosecuting attorneys, jurors, and judges involved with each of those 152 cases was put to death.

Walking through the Tombstone, AZ cemetery you will see a number of headstones with a name and the words "hung by mistake". I'm pretty sure this has been happening for a long time.

I am also pretty sure the law has been covering their own asses by calling these clear abuses "mistakes" for a long time.

[Sam I am]

have nothing to do with crimes of violence.

please restate your query.
sans emotion.

Because of course, innocent people never EVER get put on death row.

Ever!

[Occam's Banana]

There's going to be an epistemological divide here, seeing as my answer to this is "But what does the Bible say?"

The briefest & most cursory inspection of our very own "Peace Through Religion" forum (let alone the world at large) more than amply demonstrates the woeful inadequacy of the mere question "but what does the Bible say?" to answer anything.

[angelatc]

And those people will still rot in jail. This isn't the solution. The solutions are in the Bible.

I believe Jesus said to turn the other cheek.

[Suzanimal]

The briefest & most cursory inspection of our very own "Peace Through Religion" forum (let alone the world at large) more than amply demonstrates the woeful inadequacy of the mere question "but what does the Bible say?" to answer anything.

No doubt...

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Occam's Banana again.

[Christian Liberty]

I believe Jesus said to turn the other cheek.

Yes, but Jesus' words need to be taken in the context of the rest of scripture. Jesus' words were never meant to be taken in isolation. Matthew 5:17.

[Christian Liberty]

The briefest & most cursory inspection of our very own "Peace Through Religion" forum (let alone the world at large) more than amply demonstrates the woeful inadequacy of the mere question "but what does the Bible say?" to answer anything.

Yeah, but most of that is just people not liking what it says. Not all of it, there are legitimate theological disputes, but at any rate, the Bible is my starting point.