[CUADPUpdate] One Vote

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

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Greetings All,

Earlier today the Nebraska legislature failed to 
pass an abolition bill - by ONE 
vote.  Congratulations to the abolitionists in 
that state, and in the other states mentioned in 
David Elliot's BLOG post seen below.

I'll note that I will now be occasionally 
blogging on 
http://www.deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com/ - my 
first post went up Saturday night and you can 
read it by going to 
http://www.deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com/ and scrolling down.

AND... stand by for exciting news about 
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

paz!

--abe



Four states. Four close votes


Suddenly, repealing the death penalty is a hot topic

Public attitudes and times change­sometimes 
quickly. Legislatures follow, albeit slowly. In 
recent years and election cycles, something is 
profoundly different about the death penalty. 
Death penalty abolition is not the kiss of death 
for elected officials. Governors are publicly 
stating their support for getting rid of the 
death penalty (Corzine in New Jersey, O’Malley in 
Maryland) or, at very least, their principled opposition (Kaine in Virginia).

Death penalty opponents are pressing forward and 
gaining support in a wide variety of state 
legislatures. In the first three months of this 
year alone, bills to abolish the death penalty 
have received serious consideration in Maryland, 
Montana, Nebraska, and New Mexico – four states 
that do not have a whole lot in common culturally 
or geographically. And, against all conventional 
wisdom the votes are surprisingly close. In New 
Mexico, an abolition bill passed the House and 
died in a Senate committee earlier this month by 
one vote. In Montana, an abolition bill passed 
the Senate and died in a House committee earlier 
this month by one vote. In Nebraska’s unicameral 
Legislature, abolition died today – again, by one 
vote. And in Maryland, a similar measure last 
week died in a Senate committee by – you guessed it – one vote.

Other states that have considered or currently 
are considering abolition or moratorium 
legislation in 2007 include Colorado, 
Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New 
Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. And not 
one non-death penalty state is seriously considering reinstatement.

Meanwhile, executions are down (the 2006 
execution rate was at a ten-year low and this 
year’s execution rate likely will be lower still, 
with almost a dozen states suspending executions 
because of controversy over lethal injection 
procedures). Death sentences are down sharply, 
and in December of last year, the Gallup Poll 
found – for the first time in modern history – 
that Americans prefer life without parole to the 
death penalty (in some states, such as Maryland 
and New Jersey, by wide margins).

What are we to make of the close votes in so many 
states? First, we see that a sea change is 
occurring around policy-makers’ attitudes about 
the death penalty. A new conventional wisdom is 
forming in many states’ legislatures that the 
death penalty is completely broken. Death 
sentences are bankrupting local jurisdictions. 
More and more wrongfully convicted individuals 
are exonerated. Lethal injections go 
spectacularly and horrifically wrong. Opponents 
of the death penalty, lawmakers and advocates 
alike, are heartened by this increasing support 
and know that it’s only a short time until their 
legislatures decide to end it, not mend it.

This will not happen overnight, as the recent 
close votes show. Legislative momentum for reform 
tends to be slow and incremental – but at the end 
of the day, permanent. The question is not 
whether we will abolish the death penalty. The 
question is when. We are now on our way.

***********

Here's a few news items:

NEBRASKA:

Bill to repeal death penalty fails to advance ----  Debate begins anew
over death penalty


The Legislature voted 25-24 today against repealing Nebraska's death
penalty.

Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood, left, and Sen. Ernie Chambers speak
this morning on the legislative floor. In Flood, Chambers had a powerful
opponent in his efforts to end the death penalty.After the vote, State
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, the sponsor of the repeal bill, said the
bill probably is dead for the year.

The vote followed two days of often-emotional debate in which several
state senators said they were wrestling with their personal moral beliefs.

State Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege said he was struggling to reconcile his
anti-abortion beliefs with support for the death penalty.

"I am so opposed to abortion, I'm pro-life," he said today. "To be
consistently pro-life, maybe I should oppose the death penalty."

He said that if Chambers would join with him to fight abortion, he would
gladly vote against the death penalty.

Chambers, however, said he views abortion as an issue involving the
"personal, intimate" rights of women and not a parallel to the death
sentence.

Sen. John Synowiecki of Omaha said the teachings of the Catholic Church
have led him to support repeal of the death penalty. Although he once
supported the punishment in a "knee-jerk fashion," he said, he's come to
believe that capital punishment does not protect public safety and is only
a form of vengeance.

Other senators said they were struggling to compare cases that put some
murderers on death row while others received life in prison.

Sen. LeRoy Louden of Ellsworth said he continues to support the death
penalty because of cases like that of Raymond Mata Jr., who was sentenced
to die after killing his girlfriend's child, dismembering the boy's body
and feeding parts of it to a dog.

But State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island cited the case of a Grand
Island man, Germai Molina, who was sentenced to 80 years to life for
second-degree murder after being convicted of beating a little girl to
death with a belt for wetting her pants. Aguilar was a pallbearer at the
child's funeral.

**

How they voted

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today's 25-24 vote against LB 476, a bill to repeal Nebraska's death
penalty:

Voting Against (25):

Burling, Christensen, Engel, Erdman, Fischer, Flood, Friend, Fulton, Gay,
Hansen, Harms, Heidemann, Hudkins, Janssen, Karpisek, Langemeier, Louden,
Mines, Nelson, Pahls, Pankonin, Pirsch, Stuthman, White, Wightman.

Voting For (24):

Adams, Aguilar, Ashford, Avery, Carlson, Chambers, Cornett, Dierks, Dubas,
Howard, Johnson, Kopplin, Kruse, Lathrop, McDonald, McGill, Nantkes,
Pedersen, Preister, Raikes, Rogert, Schimek, Synowicki, Wallman."If
anybody needs to die, that man needed to die," Aguilar said angrily. "That
is the worst case of inconsistency in our law that I have ever heard of.
That is why I'm struggling with this."

That's the reaction Chambers was hoping for as the Legislature conducted
its first full-scale debate over the death penalty since 1988.

With 22 new lawmakers at the State Capitol this year, Chambers said many
state senators haven't yet wrestled with the death penalty in depth.

Debate of Legislative Bill 476 - Chambers' proposal to change the maximum
penalty for 1st-degree murder from death to life in prison without
possibility of parole - began Monday.

"They came here with one viewpoint, but they're uncertain now," Chambers
said of fellow lawmakers. "They can see things are wrong. Things have been
wrong."

One mind - that of Gov. Dave Heineman - appears to be unwavering on the
subject. Heineman promised to veto a death penalty repeal bill if it
reaches his desk. It would take 30 votes to override a veto.

"I support the death penalty and I'm opposed to its repeal," Heineman
said. He urged lawmakers to heed the majority of Nebraskans who he said
favor capital punishment.

12 states, including Iowa, do not have the death penalty.

Chambers, whose 37-year tenure is the longest in the Legislature's
history, also is the Legislature's longest-standing death penalty
opponent. He has introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty in every
2-year legislative term since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital
punishment in 1976.

But the formidable Chambers has a powerful opponent this year: Sen. Mike
Flood of Norfolk, the speaker of the Legislature.

Chambers described what he called the inconsistencies and expense of
capital punishment.

Flood pointed to the 2002 murders of five people in his district during a
botched bank robbery. Three of 10 men now on Nebraska's death row - Erick
Vela, Jorge Galindo and Jose Sandoval - were sentenced for their roles in
the Norfolk crime.

"Some cases are so heinous, so awful, pitiless, emotionally abusive - to
the point where you don't want to hear the facts," Flood said. "They
warrant the death penalty."

29 people have been sentenced to death in Nebraska since 1976. 3
executions have been carried out - Harold Otey in 1994, John Joubert in
1996 and Robert Williams in 1997.

Other inmates have left death row when the courts overturned their
sentences or they died of suicide or natural causes.

Chambers said the courts have struggled without success to ensure that the
death penalty is reserved for the worst murders.

Even though Nebraska's death sentencing law tries to define murders that
deserve the death penalty, some people escape a death sentence despite
committing terrible crimes, while others wind up on death row for reasons
other than the relative severity of their crime, Chambers said.

The lucky ones may have better lawyers, he said.

Chambers said studies have shown that race can factor into the death
penalty decision. One landmark study showed that those who murder a white
person are four times more likely to get a death sentence than those who
murder someone who's not white.

Flood read aloud each of the factors under Nebraska law that could justify
a death sentence, arguing that they offer rational criteria for the
decision. He said society is entitled to retribution for some crimes.

(source: Omaha World-Herald)

*******************

Abolishment Supporters Dominate Death Debate----Death Penalty Debated For
First Time In 20 Years


Debate on Monday on whether to repeal the death penalty was dominated by
state lawmakers who want to make Nebraska one of 12 states without the
ultimate penalty.

But there will be plenty of time for supporters of the death penalty to
pose their arguments. Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, the speaker of the
Legislature, said a vote could come within the next couple days. The
repeal bill -- LB476 -- was introduced by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha,
who has tried to rid the state of the death penalty every legislative term
for more than 30 years.

There have been 3 executions in Nebraska since the lawmakers last debated
the death penalty in 1988. The crowds that gathered outside the state
penitentiary in Lincoln during those executions were what some senators
remembered on the floor.

"I was sickened by the disregard of the lack of dignity surrounding the
death of a man," said Sen. Gail Kopplin of Gretna.

Chambers calls the death penalty grotesque and cruel for all involved,
while fellow opponents say it does not act as a deterrent to murderers.

"The state should not kill anybody," Chambers said on Monday.

He and some other senators argued that the electric chair is cruel and
unusual and not applied fairly.

"The death penalty appears to be heavily biased toward racial minorities
and the poor," said Sen. Bill Avery of Lincoln. "I find this most
disturbing."

Flood said the death penalty is a deterrent and serves as retribution.
Flood talked about the Norfolk bank slayings to make his point.

"Shooting them in the leg and in the neck -- it was awful. And that type
of behavior warrants the death penalty," Flood said. "You're doing this to
get back at them because you're mad, and we are mad. And that's on the
table."

Former state Sen. Loren Schmidt was there the last time senators debated
the issue. The 1-time death penalty supporter turned opponent said he
believes society is changing, just as he did.

"I don't see the vehemence in support of the death penalty on the floor
today we saw in my career," Schmidt said.

The closest Chambers has come was in 1979, when his bill passed on a 26-22
vote but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charley Thone.

(source: KETV News)