Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers is confident his latest attempt to do away with the death penalty in Nebraska will be debated by the full Legislature this session.
After a hearing Wednesday on his bill (LB268) that would change a death sentence in capital murder cases to life without the possibility of parole, he said senators that he wouldn't have expected are coming to him to say they will support the bill.
"But again, I never count my chickens before they hatch, especially when I don't have the number of eggs that were laid and ... when I don't have a chicken," he said.
Seven Republican state senators have signed on to Chambers' bill that would change the penalty.
They are Sens. John McCollister, Bob Krist, Mark Kolterman, Al Davis, Laura Ebke, Tommy Garrett and Colby Coash. Another, who is on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Matt Williams, said he might as well get his name on the bill, too.
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Ebke said her support of doing away with the death penalty was based on both moral and practical considerations.
"We have the ability to keep people in prison forever," she said. "As (attorney) Alan (Peterson) said a few minutes ago, I don't think we need to kill people to show people that we shouldn't kill."
Still, there are unknowns in any potential debate. If some senators decided to filibuster the bill, it would need 33 votes to stop that. If it was vetoed by the governor, it would need 30 votes to override.
At least a dozen people testified in support of Chambers' bill, including family members of murder victims, pastors, attorneys, a retired judge, and Matt Maly, with Nebraska Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, who talked about the burden of death penalty cases on taxpayers.
Jim Davidsaver, a retired Lincoln police captain with 30 years law enforcement experience, who had to leave before he could testify, submitted his written remarks to the Judiciary Committee.
"Some might be surprised to learn a veteran police officer supports repealing the death penalty," Davidsaver said. "But my professional experience has shown me that our state’s death penalty does not make us any safer. Its exorbitant cost actually detracts from programs that would promote the overall health, safety and welfare of our communities."
Attorney Alan Peterson, who represent a death row inmate and works with the Nebraska ACLU, gave seven reasons why the death penalty should go.
It has no deterrent effect, he said. Serial child killer John Joubert, who was executed in Nebraska in 1996, could have committed one of his Nebraska murders just two miles away in Iowa, which has no death penalty, and didn't do so.
Peterson said there's racial disparity in the death penalty's application, especially in regard to the victims, and methods of execution are faulty. Total loss of freedom is punishment enough, he said.
Only one testifier opposed the bill.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said the Nebraska County Attorneys Association opposed the bill.
"In certain, extreme, unique situations we believe there needs to be a death penalty," he said.
He said he didn't disagree with a lot of the proponents' testimony, but it's something that should be used in some circumstances. It's meted out in as fair a process in Nebraska as it can be, he said.
Earlier in the day, family members of murder victims shared their support for the bill during a news conference.
Miriam Thimm Kelle's son was in diapers when his uncle, James Thimm, was tortured and killed in a Rulo cult murder.
Her son is grown now and has two kids of his own.
That's how long Michael Ryan, convicted of Thimm's murder, has been on death row waiting for his sentence to be carried out. Her brother was killed 30 years ago next month.
Kelle and three others whose loved ones were murdered in Nebraska spoke a few hours before the hearing.
Kelle said the Nebraska death penalty sentences family members of murder victims to their own life of purgatory. Instead of focusing their energy on grieving and moving forward with their lives, they track the appeals and publicity of killers and are forced to seek justice for decades.
Nebraska's death penalty divides families between those who want to see the killer executed and those who want to see a sentence of life imprisonment so they can move on. Instead, Kelle said, they should be united in their loving memories of their son or daughter, brother or sister, mother or father who has died.
Kelle said Ryan has a medical condition that he will probably die from this year. The Journal Star was unable to verify Ryan's condition.
At the hearing, Chambers said the man has terminal brain cancer.
"So he's going to cheat the executioner of his prey," he said.
Elle Hansen of Lincoln, who lost three loved ones to murder, said arbitrary distinctions are drawn in Nebraska courts between which killers get the death penalty and which cases do not rise to that level.
"I want to share the pain and outrage I feel when I hear politicians say that we need the death penalty for the worst of the worst," Hansen said. "This is an absurd notion.
"I guarantee you, each of our losses is the worst of the worst."
The victims' families presented legislators with a letter urging them to end what they say is the broken public policy that only inflicts more harm on surviving family members.
Chambers designated LB268 as his priority bill.