Capital punishment in Nebraska

A total of 37 individuals have been executed in Nebraska including 3 since 1976 as US Supreme Court allowed the resumption of executions. A total of 10 people are under a sentence of death in the state as of May 2009. On February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared electrocution "cruel and unusual punishment"; on May 28, 2009, the state legislature adopted lethal injection as its execution method.

Process

The jury decides the sentence and may punish First Degree Murder as a Class I felony or a Class IA felony. According to Nebraska law, Class I felonies mean death is the punishment and Class IA felonies mean life imprisonment without parole is the punishment. Death sentences are automatically appealed to a three-judge panel. The Governor of Nebraska sits on the board that determines clemency. 31 people have been given clemency including 11 since 1976. First Degree Murder is the only Class I crime. Nebraska State Penitentiary is where executions in Nebraska have taken place since 1903. As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime ^[1] or mentally challenged^[2] are constitutionally precluded from being executed.

Method

The sole method of execution in Nebraska is lethal injection.^[3]

Historically, hanging was the method Nebraska used up to the execution of Albert Prince. In 1913 after the execution of Albert Prince, a new law was passed requiring electric chair as the method of execution and outlawed hanging. Allison Cole was the first person executed by the electric chair in Nebraska.^[4] As of 2007, the electric chair was required as the method of execution. The most notorious electrocution ever carried out in the state of Nebraska is arguably that of murderer Charles Starkweather, whose 1958 killing spree with his teenage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate cemented his reputation as one of America's most bloodthirsty spree killers to ever be brought to justice.

On February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared in State v. Mata that electrocution constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Nebraska Constitution, effectively staying all death sentences in Nebraska.^[5] The state legislature approved the bill to change its method of execution to lethal injection; Gov. Dave Heineman signed the bill on May 28, 2009. Nebraska was the last state to adopt lethal injection as execution method.^[6]

Capital offenses

• First Degree Murder
  • First degree murder is killing another person by:
    • Murdering the person purposely and with deliberate and premeditated malice.
    • Murdering the person in the perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate any sexual assault in the first degree, arson, robbery, kidnapping, hijacking of any public or private means of transportation, or burglary.
    • Murdering the person by administering poison or causing the same to be done; or if by willful and corrupt perjury or subornation of the same he or she purposely procures the conviction and execution of any innocent person.

List of individuals executed in Nebraska before 1976

A total of 14 individuals have were executed in the U.S. state of Nebraska from its statehood in 1867 when counties carried out executions until 1903 when the state took over executions.

A total of 20 individuals were executed by the U.S. state of Nebraska before the 1972 Supreme Court capital punishment ban.

List of individuals executed in Nebraska after 1976

A total of 3 individuals convicted of murder have been executed by the U.S. state of Nebraska since 1976. All were executed by electric chair. Nebraska was seeking an execution date for first use lethal injection since the elecric chair was declared unconstitutional in 2008. Finally, on April 21 2011, the Nebraska Supreme Court set the first execution date for June 14, 2011 after more than 13 years. On May 26 2011, the Nebraska Supreme Court stayed the execution due to due to objections that the sodium thiopental that Nebraska purchased from a Mumbai company fails to comply with U.S. pharmaceutical standards.

See also

• Capital punishment in the United States

References

Further reading

• Baldus, D.C. et al. (2001). The disposition of Nebraska capital and non-capital homicide cases (1973-1999): a legal and empirical analysis. Lincoln, Neb.: Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.

External links

• List of executions in Nebraska
• First Degree Murder
• Classes and Penalties for Felonies
• Procedures for capital cases and who can not get the death penalty