Nebraska legislature repeals death penalty, overriding governor's veto

Reuters ^ | 05/27/2015 | Reuters

[GIdget2004]

Nebraska on Wednesday became the 19th U.S. state to abolish capital punishment as legislators narrowly voted to override the Republican governor's veto of a bill repealing the death penalty.

The state's unicameral legislature voted 30-19, the exact number of votes needed to override Governor Pete Ricketts' veto, to replace capital punishment with a term of life without parole.

Nebraska became the first majority Republican state to repeal the death penalty since North Dakota in 1993. Nebraska has not executed an inmate since 1997, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks capital punishment.

[Norm Lenhart]

Lesser evil hurts no one. Really...

[freedomfiter2]

Nebraska places a higher value on convicted murderers than it does the victims.

[Crazieman]

But we’ll hold their feet to the fire! Yessirree!

[Norm Lenhart]

I’m dealing with two of those liberals on another thread now. You should see the excuses.

[re_nortex]

The crime rate will soar in Nebraska! Here in Texas, our capital punishment express lane ensures that criminals get justice. That along with all of the well-armed citizens keeps most everyone polite.

[jwalsh07]

Massachusetts jurors vote death for a terrorist and Nebraska abolishes death penalty for terrorists. The end times must be near.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

So how do legislature primaries work in Nebraska.

Is it like Washington, Louisiana and California with open primaries or is it like Mississippi where they let Democrats vote in GOP primaries?

It seems it is backward in Nebraska. You get more conservative Governors/Senators(statewide) than you do conservative members of the legislature.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

Ben Sasse is good.

But even Johanns and Deb Fischer I doubt would come out for a repeal of the death penalty if they had to go to voters in 2016 or 2018.

The previous governor(so-called establishment guy) vetoed tuition for illegals and the legislature did an over-ride.

[Crazieman]

What they never get is that the lesser evil gives tacit Republican approval of these policies, which heavily damages the brand and brings about the perception that the country is hopeless.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

Some issues are interesting where you have social liberal having a more conservative view on particular issues.

Scott Brown is a white liberal who wants the northeastern white women vote and ignores pandering to hispanics. Brown is better on the death penalty and illegal immigration than most Republicans. He also has this fratboy arrogance where he wont pander to certain people.

John Hoeven and Bob Corker want to be some sort of heroic kingmakers of the beltway and pander to Hispanics who are not significant to their primary or general election prospects.

[Norm Lenhart]

Its not that they don’t get it. Its that it is exactly what they want. After all the things we have seen the GOP do this year alone, it is not credible for anyone to support them without being a liberal. A genuine liberal.

[The Great RJ]

I would not be surprised to see the Nebraska legislature fund a monument to massmurderer Charles Starkweather

[samtheman]

Idiots

[RJS1950]

Nebraska has long had the ultimate political fantasy legislature; the Unicameral. One house, and oh yeah, non-partisan. Yes, you heard that right, they believe that this perfect mythical legislature is non-partisan.

Of course, that has never really been close to reality but the state has held it up as a paragon of political perfection for years.

This override was in large part the doing of a number of newly elected “conservative” republicans who “voted their conscience” (heard that before) instead of implementing the wishes of the majority of Nebraskans to KEEP the death penalty.

One house to rule them all and representation be damned.

[Jagdgewehr]

You should see the excuses.

Don't tell me. It's the lesser-of-two-evils-we-can-change-them-holding-their-feet-to-the-fire-it's-easier-to-change-the-direction-of-a-rolling-rock-than-one-standing-still-it-takes-time-to-turn-a-large-ship-right-rudder-and-you're-an-obamabot-for-not-voting-for-GOP excuse? Did I miss anything?

[Norm Lenhart]

Freepmail ;)

[Alberta's Child]

Nebraska and North Dakota -- the two states mentioned in the leading paragraphs of this article -- are among the most reliably conservative states in the U.S. I suspect there's something at work here that goes beyond what Freepers are assuming is the soft-on-crime narrative.

If I were a legislator I would vote to abolish the death penalty, too ... not because I value the lives of murderers over those of victims, but because I recognize that with the kind of nitwits that run this country, the state probably doesn't even have the moral authority to arrest people, let alone execute them.

[jacknhoo]

Good for Nebraska. The United States has no need for the death penalty. Our technological advances are such that an imprisoned person is no longer a threat to the public.

I understand that for those who are atheistic, their only closure is to murder the guilty, but we all know the atheistic have no moral foundation anyhow.

Thank God I am Christian and know vengeance is His and it brings comfort to know the state of Nebraska will not be murdering their imprisoned convicts and rendering more people guilty of conspiring to do so. Now if we can just get people to stop murdering the innocent and defenseless little boys and girls we’ll be making some real headway against the culture of death.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

I agree with RINO Kelly Ayotte when she put the black cop killer in solitary confinement on death row (no actually gets a needle in New Hampshire) instead of partying it up with people like Mumia Abdul Jamal.