Posted on 05/20/2015 12:10:17 PM PDT by GIdget2004
LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska lawmakers gave final approval on Wednesday to a bill abolishing the death penalty that would make it the first conservative state to do so since 1973 if the measure becomes law.
The vote margin in the unicameral Legislature was more than enough to override a promised veto from Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, a staunch supporter of capital punishment, who said that it was a "dark day" for public safety.
"Nebraska has a chance to step into history — the right side of history — to take a step that will be beneficial toward the advancement of a civilized society," said Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, an independent who has fought for four decades to the end the death penalty.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
You make a valid point.
I will settle for a punishment then that fits the nature of the crime.
The Golden Rule still applies I presume.
Good. The State should not be in the business of executing even for those that “deserve” it. That’s not the argument. it is twofold:
1. The State should never have this much power over it’s citizens. period.
2. We know with 100% surety that the innocent have been executed and that many innocents were put on death row and later cleared. The possibility of executing 1 innocent only justifies the execution of another in Islam. We are NOT Islam.
If this can happen in Nebraska — home of Charlie Starkweather — then it can happen anywhere.
The Aurora theater trial is going on now, defended by public defenders. The State is spending millions to fund both sides of the case and I'm thinking even if the guy is convicted the sentence will probably never be carried out.
We do NOT know that any innocents have been executed. Numerous convictions have been overturned, many for purely technical reasons. But I don't know of a single case where an innocent man was PROVEN innocent after he was executed.
The State wields far vaster power than that of capital punishment. At least in that case, an intricate due process is invoked -- usually repeatedly.
The option of capital punishment -- the death penalty -- is essential if true justice is to be served.
You certainly don’t have to use it, but to take it off the books is a huge mistake.
wouldn’t live there anyway. Hope they have ‘less’ crimes. lol
Unicameral legislatures make it easier to pass bad laws (only one house does the vetting), and non-partisan legislators can’t be defeated in primaries if they stray from their purported ideology. Nebraska has a lethal combination.
And, yes, thank God that Nebraskans get to elect their own U.S. Senators instead of having the state legislature do it, which is why the state elected conservative Ben Sasse to the Senate instead of some “non-partisn” milquetoast.
Too many overzealous government officials out there who look for a promotion off the backs of convictions instead of the right conviction. In addition, DNA is clearing people these days.
Duke LaCrosse, Angela Corey, and Baltimore City's DA should open some people's eyes. That doesn't even get to the feds and the "just us" department.
Hogwash indeed.
You’d think different if someone you loved was looking at the death penalty ... wrongfully. There is no coming back from an execution. Period. So it’s OK to kill the innocent to do what .. man up? “Well, we killed Bob wrgonfull but by gum at least we are men”?
Wrong. No. Absolutely not.
Leave that to Saudi Arabia.
There's no recovering the decades lost to false imprisonment either. Does that mean we shouldn't sentence anyone to prison?
So it’s OK to kill the innocent ...
We don't kill the innocent.
The cause, re: your point, is that we no longer have a Republic. We the People have allowed the judiciary (govt) to run roughshod over us all.
In those cited instances, the over-zealous use the force, and $$, of State to prosecute OUTSIDE the law, quickly use the law and protection of their position when it is shown they have overstepped, and the State protecting their own when they give a wrist-slap that would have been YEARS/DECADES for the peons.
I have heard VERY little of govt being held to a higher standard and punished appropriately.
Where else but govt can one ‘quit’ to not risk prosecution; while keeping their bennies/etc.??
Because Liberals have made them so expensive. Passing legal reforms to bar Liberals from making them so expensive would seem to me to be the correct solution. Throwing up our hands and saying "Because Liberals have made Death Penalty Cases so expensive, we are doing away with the Death Penalty" is just foolish.
In 1933, Giuseppe Zangara shot Mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak. Two weeks after the Mayor died, they Executed Zangara. This is how a functional system works.
The Aurora theater trial is going on now, defended by public defenders. The State is spending millions to fund both sides of the case and I'm thinking even if the guy is convicted the sentence will probably never be carried out.
Again, the problem is a dysfunctional system caused by Liberal trouble makers.
A statement of a pure lunatic.
Capital punishment was saved in DE here this month by one vote--ONE vote, in the face of huge public support for the death penalty. We are run by Democrat loons in DE.
I hope the governor of NE vetoes the bill and the people rise up to save the death penalty.
Otherwise every life in NE is worthless.
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