LINCOLN, Neb.-
When Sen. Ernie Chambers’ nephew was shot in the head and killed several years ago—the injuries so extensive the casket wasn’t opened, the killer never found—the fiery Omaha senator who adamantly opposes the death penalty said people couldn’t wait to ask him if he changed his mind.
“It wouldn’t bring my nephew back, it wouldn’t make my sister feel different,” Chambers, who normally does not speak of his personal life, said on the legislative floor Monday.
He began what is expected to be a long attack on the death penalty Monday, the first day of debate on his bill (LB476) that would make Nebraska one of the 12 states that doesn’t have the death penalty.
Chambers called execution a grotesque and cruel process—for those executed and for state employees who administer executions.
The longtime senator has tried to rid the state of the death penalty every legislative term for more than 30 years and now has a rare opportunity to do so. Senators are debating the issue for the first time in almost 20 years.
Chambers and other death penalty opponents dominated the discussion Monday, saying it doesn’t deter would-be murderers, is unfairly imposed because just a small fraction of those eligible for the penalty have been executed, and will eventually be struck down by the courts.
“We’ve had 175 death penalty eligible cases and we’ve delivered retribution to three families,” said Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha.
Three men have been executed in Nebraska since the Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that the death penalty is not a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.
The anti-death penalty tenor of the debate Monday, however, is not necessarily a sign the repeal measure has enough support. In a pre-session survey by The Associated Press, 29 of the 49 senators said they opposed repealing the death penalty. Should the bill pass, its supporters also will likely have to override a veto from Gov. Dave Heineman.
“I support the death penalty and am opposed to the bill,” said Heineman, who indicated he may lobby senators to defeat the bill. “I have no doubt that most Nebraskans, in an overwhelming manner, support the death penalty.”
Chambers said a couple senators who have supported the death penalty have told him they are thinking about opposing it.
Not among the fence-sitters is Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, speaker of the Legislature. He offered the 2002 Norfolk bank killings, when five people were shot dead, as evidence the death penalty can be justified. Three of the four killers have been sentenced to death and are on death row.
The closest Chambers has come to repealing the death penalty was in 1979, when his bill passed on a 26-22 vote but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charley Thone.
Nebraska death-penalty opponents were dealt a blow early this year when the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by Nebraska death row inmate Carey Dean Moore, who argued that execution by the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Nebraska is the only state with electrocution as its sole means of execution. That has aroused concern among death-penalty supporters that it might eventually be struck down by courts as an unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment, and has led to calls that the state add lethal injection as a means of execution.
Flood introduced an amendment to Chambers’ bill that would do so but said Monday that he doubts it will come to a vote.
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