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| Neb. Panel Rejects Lethal Injection |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/26/2002 |
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The Nebraska legislature's Judiciary Committee rejected a bill last week that would have changed the state's method of execution from the electric chair to death by injection. Nebraska is the only state with the chair as its sole means of execution, which some fear could lead a court to rule the state's death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment. But Sen. Kermit Brashear, the committee's chairman, said there is no immediate need to end Nebraska's use of the electric chair. The bill was rejected 5-2. Lawmakers are meeting in a special session to deal with constitutional questions in the state's death-penalty laws, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that said juries, not judges, must decide if a murder merits the death penalty. In Nebraska, judges have made that determination since the Legislature decided in the 1970s that there was the potential of bias by juries. Debate is continuing on a bill, introduced on behalf of Gov. Mike Johanns, that would have juries determine if aggravating circumstances exist that would merit the death penalty. Johanns called the session after the Sept. 26 killings of five people at a Norfolk bank. The four suspects are Hispanic. The state's Commission on Mexican-Americans said the special session is being perceived by Hispanics as racially driven. Alabama had been the only other state using the electric chair exclusively. But Gov. Don Siegelman signed a law earlier this year making lethal injection the primary method of execution there, unless the inmate requests the electric chair. |
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