12 March 2024 :
March 6, 2024 - Nebraska. Bill to allow vote to repeal Nebraska’s death penalty fails again to advance to floor debate
A proposal seeking to repeal Nebraska’s death penalty failed to advance Wednesday, with 1 non-supporter citing voters’ overwhelming restoration of capital punishment at the polls in 2016.
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted 3-4, with one senator present and not voting, to advance a proposed constitutional amendment that would put the issue of banning the death penalty on the ballot in November. The committee has an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.
State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, introduced Legislative Resolution 17CA.
Five votes would have been needed to advance the proposal to debate by the full Legislature, which voted in 2015 to repeal capital punishment.
But repealing the death penalty has faced opposition ever since Nebraska voters, after an initiative petition drive funded primarily by the family of then-Gov. Pete Ricketts, voted to restore capital punishment in the 2016 election.
Nebraska has 11 men on its death row but hasn’t carried out an execution since 2018, when double-murderer Carey Dean Moore was put to death via lethal injection. That was the state’s 1st execution in 21 years.
