As the Legislature prepares to consider Nebraska's death penalty, seven Republican senators gathered in the Capitol Rotunda Wednesday to declare their support for repeal.Â
Lawmakers begin debate Thursday morning on a bill (LB268) introduced by Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers to replace capital punishment with a life sentence without possibility of parole. Â
Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash said the death penalty is not used, not necessary and a waste of taxpayer money.Â
Families of victims tell him that when a death sentence is rendered but never carried out, it takes attention away from the victim and focuses it on the offender and his or her years of appeals, he said at the Wednesday gathering.Â
"I think the fair thing to the victims is, 'We're going to impose a (life) sentence that we can actually carry out,'" Coash said.Â
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Sen. Tommy Garrett of Bellevue, a 26-year Air Force veteran, said his opposition to the death penalty is not for the sake of the convicted but for the sake of society.
"My main objection comes from my pro-life values," he said. "I believe that the state of Nebraska giving itself the power to play God is an affront to my efforts and to the efforts of my conservative brethren to create a culture of life in society."Â
Too much life is taken from this world every day, he said, and members of the Legislature do not have to "join in the mob of destruction."Â
Sen. Al Davis of Hyannis said he got alarmed a few years ago when two men in Murdock were falsely accused and charged in the murders of Wayne and Sharmon Stock. The case included false confessions and evidence planted by a crime scene investigations director.Â
Had careful investigation not continued, Davis said, the two innocent men could be on death row today.Â
Other repeal supporters at the news conference were Sens. Laura Epke of Crete, John McCollister of Omaha and Mark Kolterman of Seward.Â
Marc Hyden, with Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said the system is broken and inconsistent with conservative principles. Plus, it fails to deter crime and is harmful to murder victims' families.Â
National support for the death penalty is near a 40-year low, he said, and conservative legislators are sponsoring repeal legislation because it does not fit within the philosophy of life, fiscal responsibility and limited government.
Omaha Sen. Bob Krist addressed comments on a local radio station that called out the senators for not being Republican or conservative enough.
"I am Republican enough," Krist said. "I am conservative enough. And I am strong enough to follow through with my life convictions, which is life from conception to natural death."Â Â
Omaha Sen. Brett Lindstrom withdrew his name from the bill in March but did not withdraw his support. On Wednesday, he said withdrawing his name was a protest of sorts against a comment Sen. Ernie Chambers had made comparing police to the terrorist group Islamic State.Â
His vote to repeal the death penalty, he said, would be based on the bill itself and not on the senator who brought it.Â
Of course, a number of conservative senators support the death penalty.Â
Omaha Sen. Beau McCoy has filed seven amendments and a motion to kill Chambers' bill.Â
Sen. Bill Kintner of Papillion has filed an amendment that would replace lethal injection with a firing squad after the accused is sedated.
Gov. Pete Ricketts promised to veto the bill if it passes. The death penalty remains an important tool for Nebraska’s prosecutors when seeking proportional punishment for the most heinous crimes, he said. And the costs of litigating appeals in death penalty cases are negligible to the state and in no way offset the death penalty’s usefulness in sentencing the worst criminals, the governor said.
Attorney General Doug Peterson said new lethal injection protocols are being prepared to allow the state to carry out the death penalty.