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New execution chamber an outrageous boondoggle
By reviewjournal.com- Nancy Hart & Tod Story
Published: 05/27/2015

In a historic vote May 20, the Nebraska Legislature abolished the state’s death penalty. The vote was based on concerns about the high cost of capital punishment and a protracted appeals process that prevents families of murder victims from reaching closure. Nebraska is the first “red” state to repeal capital punishment, but Republicans have been leading efforts to repeal capital punishment in at least a half-dozen states.

Regrettably, on the same day in Carson City, and in stark contrast to Nebraska’s conservative Legislature, conservative members of both houses of Nevada’s Legislature voted to spend almost $1 million to build an unneeded new execution chamber. Considering the other vital needs of our state that are much higher priorities, this boondoggle is an outrageous waste of taxpayer money.

In 2011, when the Legislature voted to close the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, the Department of Corrections assured lawmakers that the chamber would remain available should an execution be scheduled. Nonetheless, in 2013, the governor’s budget included a proposed “remodel” project to construct a new execution chamber at the prison in Ely at a cost of $760,000. However, the Department of Corrections acknowledged that the existing chamber was still functional and available if an execution were to be scheduled, and the expensive project was wisely and unanimously rejected. Unfortunately, conservative Nevada legislators imprudently approved the construction of an execution chamber that is unlikely to ever be used.

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