Nebraska pro-death penalty group submitting signatures early

Nebraskans for the Death Penalty announced how many signatures they collected Wednesday afternoon, a day before the deadline.

But getting the repeal took decades and the group named Nebraska Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty called Wednesday a big setback.

The group needs 57,000 valid signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot and double that to prevent the law from taking effect prior to the vote. Groene, of North Platte, and Tuttle said they gathered more than 1,700 and 1,900 signatures, respectively.

“And numerous comments we heard were the people need to vote on this, this is too important an issue to be decided by the give-and-take, the compromise of politics”.

The signatures must still be validated in the next 40 days by the Nebraska Secretary of State.

State Senator Cody Coash says “The problems with implementing the death penalty which have been presented to the Legislature for the past 18 years will remain regardless of the outcome of this petition”.

It appears voters in Nebraska will have the final say on the future of the death penalty. “The success of the petition drive is a testament to the strong support of Nebraskans for keeping the death penalty but also to the volunteers from Omaha to Chadron and Fairbury to Pierce”. Ricketts, a Republican, assailed the Legislature as out of touch with the wishes of most residents.

[Nebraska banned the death penalty while opponents vowed to stop the repeal. The state now has 10 men on death row, but officials now lack two of the required drugs and have struggled to obtain them legally. Some conservatives said they opposed it for religious and moral reasons, while others cast it as an inefficient government program that wastes tax money. Nebraska has not executed an inmate since 1997.

The signature announcement caps an 82-day petition drive backed by Ricketts and his father, TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts.

The largest donation in July came from the conservative, Washington-based Judicial Crisis Network, which gave $200,000.

The 35 executions carried out in 2014 was the lowest total in 20 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks capital punishment.

An opposing group, Nebraskans for Public Safety, released statements Wednesday criticizing the push for a ballot referendum and expressing confidence that executions would not resume. “The message that conservative legislators can reach across the aisle with moderate and liberal legislators – that message is still there and still resonates”.