Nebraska Votes To Reinstate The Death Penalty

On November 8, Nebraska voters overwhelmingly decided to restore the death penalty, after state legislators voted to repeal it in 2015 and became the first conservative state to do away with capital punishment since North Dakota in 1973.

On Election Day, rural voters came out in strong support of executing criminals, with as many as four-in-one voting to “repeal the repeal” in some counties, reports Omaha.com.

“The Legislature made a big mistake on a very important issue,” said Bob Evnen, a co-founder of Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, a group that worked with the state’s Republican Gov. Pete Rickets to put the death penalty referendum on the ballot.

Officials with the pro-capital punishment group have long said that voters would strongly support reinstating the law if given the chance.

State Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln, a leader with the anti-death penalty group, Retain a Just Nebraska, said that a slew of high-profile murders in the state may have impacted public opinion of the law. In 2013, Nikko Jenkins killed four people after he was released from prison in 2013, and in fall 2016, Dr. Anthony Garcia was found guilty of violently killing four people at a university.

“It’s really hard to look at those kinds of crimes and not have an emotional response,” said Coash, who added that he was disappointed by the results but that “this debate was worth having.”

Despite the overwhelming victory for capital punishment advocates, State Sen. Ernie Chambers said that he will introduce another bill in early 2017 to repeal the death penalty again.

“I have been in this activity too long to be surprised by what happened tonight,” Chambers said on November 8. “It will not dishearten me, it will not deter me.”

Some residents said that the referendum’s language was unclear as to which selection would support the death penalty and which would keep it eliminated, notes TIME. A “Retain” vote meant eliminating the death penalty, while “Repeal” meant throwing out the bill and reinstating capital punishment.

Sources: Omaha.com, TIME / Photo Credit: Ken Piorkowski/Flickr