LINCOLN, Neb.-
By a razor-thin margin lawmakers decided Tuesday that the state should be able to execute murderers, but the close vote may suggest political support for the death penalty in Nebraska has eroded and that its days could be numbered.
By just one vote, a bill to repeal the death penalty carried by the state’s most persistent critic of execution, Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, was turned down by the Legislature. Several more votes would have been needed had the bill (LB476) eventually passed, because Gov. Dave Heineman indicated he would veto it. It would take 30 votes to override a veto.
“The atmosphere has really changed since the mid-1990s,” Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln, who voted for repeal, said after the vote. She had thought the bill had a 50-50 chance of passing. “I used to fear for my political life because I oppose the death penalty.”
“Next year,” she added, “would be the year to try again.”
That’s because term limits will force Chambers out after the next legislative session. That fact, combined with Tuesday’s close vote, could set the stage for a dramatic, last-chance effort from Chambers to fulfill his career-long goal of wiping capital punishment from state statutes.
“I have another year,” Chambers said after the vote, his arms crossed and not appearing distraught. He had argued to fellow senators that the death penalty is cruel, used disproportionately on the poor and does not act as a deterrent.
“Nothing that happens can be a disappointment to me in the sense of making me feel bad,” he continued. “I’m disappointed in the sense that what I wanted to happen didn’t happen. But I don’t consider a setback defeat.”
Among supporters of the death penalty was Sen. Mike Friend of Omaha, who said it demonstrates respect for life.
It shows that “an innocent life was so precious, the crime committed so horrific, that that particular person forfeits” his right to live, Friend said.
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. Ten men sit on death row in Nebraska, which is one of 38 states that has a death penalty.
Asked before the vote whether opponents of the death penalty would gain anything if the Legislature turned down Chambers’ bill, one opponent said yes.
“This allows people to stand around the water cooler and discuss the death penalty, which probably hasn’t happened for years,” said Eric Aspengren, director of Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty.
The discussion lays the groundwork for eventual repeal, he said.
History suggests that could be wishful thinking.
Chambers, first elected in 1970, has tried to rid the state of the death penalty every legislative term for more than 30 years. He came close in 1979, when his bill passed on a 26-22 vote. But it was vetoed by then-Gov. Charley Thone.
Debate on the bill this year was the first time in nearly 20 years the full Legislature discussed repealing the death penalty.
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