Death penalty repeal fails

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By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star

The Nebraska Legislature inched close to passing a death penalty repeal on first round Tuesday, but one vote proved fatal.

A 24-25 vote shortly before noon ended the two-day debate of Omaha Sen. Ernie Chamber’s attempt to replace the death penalty with life without parole and an order of restitution.

“Really, I’ve been fighting this issue for three decades so expectations are never high that success will come,” he said after the vote.

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A miss is a miss, he said, no matter how close.

Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, speaker of the Legislature and the bill’s most vocal opponent during the debate, said he hadn’t known the senators were so divided.

“It could have gone either way,” he said, but added he would have thought more senators would have voted to keep the death penalty.

Proponents did a good job of making their case, Flood said, although he remained solidly opposed, his stand fortified by a 2002  attempted bank robbery in his home district, which includes Norfolk, that left five people dead.

Chambers said some senators who voted against his bill, LB476, apologized to him afterward, saying they were afraid politically to abolish the death penalty because of cases in their home districts.

The debate and vote were the first on the question since 1988. Many of those who spoke Monday and Tuesday said it was the first time they’d heard the arguments.

Twenty-two new senators were an unknown, and they split on the issue 11-11.

Among Lincoln senators, Bill Avery, Amanda McGill, Danielle Nantkes, Ron Raikes and DiAnna Schimek voted to advance the bill. Sen. Tony Fulton voted against moving it to a second reading.

Fulton said the arguments were persuasive, but he could not vote to advance the bill because society needs a way to defend itself from people who could order destruction from a prison cell.

“In an age of terrorism, in an age when technology advances exponentially, I cannot honestly say the day won’t come when an individual won’t require society to use absolute means to defend itself,” he said.

Senators did pass an amendment to the bill that would remove requirements for extra due process for inmates facing death sentences. Since Chambers’ bill did not advance, the current process involving aggravating and mitigating circumstances will stay intact.

Flood withdrew another amendment that would have substituted lethal injection for the electric chair, saying the issue had had no public hearing this year.

During debate the issue of abortion surfaced when Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege tried to make a deal: If Chambers would support an anti-abortion bill next year, Carlson would vote for death penalty repeal now.

“If it’s correct to be concerned about the rights of and the lives of the lowest of the lowest,” he said, “it has got to be even more right to be concerned about the defenseless and innocent of our society — the unborn.”

Death penalty repeal likely will come back next year, Chambers’ last session if term limits remain in place. And Schimek predicted the vote could favor repeal.

“I suspect there were some people who might be persuaded,” she said.

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.