Most lawmakers prefer lethal injection to electrocution
Posted: Sunday, December 24, 2006
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Capital punishment should continue to be an option in Nebraska, but the method should change from electrocution to lethal injection, a majority of state senators said.
In a pre-session survey by The Associated Press, 29 lawmakers said they support the death penalty. Six said capital punishment should be repealed. Nine were unsure or gave no answer and five did not participate on the survey.
But 27 senators said they favor a move to lethal injection, which is the preferred method of execution in 37 states. Nebraska is the only state that requires use of the electric chair.
Six senators said electrocution should continue as the method of execution, and 11 were unsure or gave no answer.
Omaha senator Ernie Chambers has been the most vociferous death-penalty opponent, introducing a bill seeking to eliminate capital punishment each session since 1973.
The only black member of the Legislature argues, among other things, that capital punishment is unfairly applied -- especially against minorities.
The closest Chambers came to having the law changed was in 1979, when his bill passed on a 26-22 vote but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charley Thone.
Sen.-elect Russ Karpisek of Wilber said he backs the death penalty and that the number of appeals should be reduced. He said DNA evidence and other scientific methods are reliable ways to identify murderers.
"If an animal kills a person, we put it down," Karpisek said. "If a person kills a person, we try to put them in jail. We pay for them the rest of their lives. Seems crazy to me."
Sen. Gail Kopplin of Gretna and Sen.-elect Cap Dierks of Ewing said the death penalty should be repealed only if replaced with a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
Sen.-elect Tony Fulton of Lincoln said he's sensitive to arguments of inequity of application of capital punishment.
"I will be accepting of initiatives to provide effective alternatives to capital punishment," Fulton said. "I do not, however, believe the death penalty can be replaced fully because it remains the right of a just society to defend itself absolutely in certain and severe instances."
On the question of lethal injection, Sen. Abbie Cornett of Bellevue said Nebraska needs to fall into the line with the majority of other capital-punishment states.
"We face losing the death penalty if we do not switch to a method not considered to be cruel and unusual punishment," Cornett said.
In 2003, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon of Omaha stopped short of declaring electrocution unconstitutional in vacating the death sentence of Charles Jess Palmer for a 1979 murder in Grand Island. Bataillon said he had been prepared to rule the use of the electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment.
Three people -- Harold Otey, John Joubert and Robert Williams -- have been put to death in Nebraska since executions were resumed in 1994.
Palmer's lawyer presented evidence and post-mortem photographs of the three in arguing his case.
Coroner reports show Joubert suffered a 4-inch blistering burn on the top of his head and blistering on both sides of his head above his ears. Williams had a "bubble blister" the size of a baseball on his left calf. Williams had pronounced "charring" on both sides of a knee and the top of the head. An execution witness reported seeing smoke emanating from Williams' knee and head.
But lethal injection is also under attack.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush recently suspended executions there after several mistakes were made during the lethal injection execution of an inmate.
Separately, a federal judge recently extended a moratorium on executions in California, declaring that its method of lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
They were just the latest challenges to lethal injection -- the preferred execution method in 37 states. Missouri's injection method, similar to California's, was recently declared unconstitutional by a federal judge.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld executions despite the pain they might cause, but has left unsettled the issue of whether the pain is unconstitutionally excessive.
Nebraska death row inmate Carey Dean Moore has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that death in the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The Nebraska Supreme Court in July rejected Moore's appeal on the same grounds.
Sen.-elect Kent Rogert of Tekamah and John Harms of Scottsbluff said lethal injection is more humane.
Karpisek said he has no preference.
"I don't really care what the method is. Just use it," he said.
Nine men now sit on Nebraska's death row.
In a pre-session survey by The Associated Press, 29 lawmakers said they support the death penalty. Six said capital punishment should be repealed. Nine were unsure or gave no answer and five did not participate on the survey.
But 27 senators said they favor a move to lethal injection, which is the preferred method of execution in 37 states. Nebraska is the only state that requires use of the electric chair.
Six senators said electrocution should continue as the method of execution, and 11 were unsure or gave no answer.
Omaha senator Ernie Chambers has been the most vociferous death-penalty opponent, introducing a bill seeking to eliminate capital punishment each session since 1973.
The only black member of the Legislature argues, among other things, that capital punishment is unfairly applied -- especially against minorities.
The closest Chambers came to having the law changed was in 1979, when his bill passed on a 26-22 vote but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charley Thone.
Sen.-elect Russ Karpisek of Wilber said he backs the death penalty and that the number of appeals should be reduced. He said DNA evidence and other scientific methods are reliable ways to identify murderers.
"If an animal kills a person, we put it down," Karpisek said. "If a person kills a person, we try to put them in jail. We pay for them the rest of their lives. Seems crazy to me."
Sen. Gail Kopplin of Gretna and Sen.-elect Cap Dierks of Ewing said the death penalty should be repealed only if replaced with a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
Sen.-elect Tony Fulton of Lincoln said he's sensitive to arguments of inequity of application of capital punishment.
"I will be accepting of initiatives to provide effective alternatives to capital punishment," Fulton said. "I do not, however, believe the death penalty can be replaced fully because it remains the right of a just society to defend itself absolutely in certain and severe instances."
On the question of lethal injection, Sen. Abbie Cornett of Bellevue said Nebraska needs to fall into the line with the majority of other capital-punishment states.
"We face losing the death penalty if we do not switch to a method not considered to be cruel and unusual punishment," Cornett said.
In 2003, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon of Omaha stopped short of declaring electrocution unconstitutional in vacating the death sentence of Charles Jess Palmer for a 1979 murder in Grand Island. Bataillon said he had been prepared to rule the use of the electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment.
Three people -- Harold Otey, John Joubert and Robert Williams -- have been put to death in Nebraska since executions were resumed in 1994.
Palmer's lawyer presented evidence and post-mortem photographs of the three in arguing his case.
Coroner reports show Joubert suffered a 4-inch blistering burn on the top of his head and blistering on both sides of his head above his ears. Williams had a "bubble blister" the size of a baseball on his left calf. Williams had pronounced "charring" on both sides of a knee and the top of the head. An execution witness reported seeing smoke emanating from Williams' knee and head.
But lethal injection is also under attack.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush recently suspended executions there after several mistakes were made during the lethal injection execution of an inmate.
Separately, a federal judge recently extended a moratorium on executions in California, declaring that its method of lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
They were just the latest challenges to lethal injection -- the preferred execution method in 37 states. Missouri's injection method, similar to California's, was recently declared unconstitutional by a federal judge.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld executions despite the pain they might cause, but has left unsettled the issue of whether the pain is unconstitutionally excessive.
Nebraska death row inmate Carey Dean Moore has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that death in the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The Nebraska Supreme Court in July rejected Moore's appeal on the same grounds.
Sen.-elect Kent Rogert of Tekamah and John Harms of Scottsbluff said lethal injection is more humane.
Karpisek said he has no preference.
"I don't really care what the method is. Just use it," he said.
Nine men now sit on Nebraska's death row.
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