Voters to decide death penalty issue

Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale said Friday that he has sent letters certifying the success of the petition drive mounted by Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, a group backed by Gov. Pete Ricketts. Ten percent of signatures, at least 113,883, were required to keep LB 268 from going into effect.

Gale said county election officials verified more than 143,000 signatures, and the petition circulators met the minimum signature threshold in 85 counties.

At least 56,942 signatures were required to add the petition referendum to the ballot.

Another lawsuit argues that language approved by Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson’s office is slanted in favor of death penalty supporters, because it incorrectly implies that first-degree murder convicts could face a lesser sentence than life in prison if the death penalty is repealed.

County election officials checked the validity of the signatures against the list of registered voters.

In Lancaster County, 20,125 signatures of the 23,901 collected were accepted.

“At that time, we will schedule dates for three public hearings to be held in each of the three congressional districts as well as produce a brochure about the death penalty referendum that will be distributed to each of the county election offices”.

Nebraska citizens will vote on whether or not the state should have the death penalty four months after it was suspended by the state legislature.

Death penalty opponents also have filed two lawsuits challenging the ballot measure.

Dan Parsons, a spokesman for the anti-death-penalty coalition Nebraskans for Public Safety also issued a statement.

In response to that lawsuit, attorneys for Nebraska for the Death Penalty have asked Judge Maret to prepare new ballot language that is “neither insufficient or unfair”.

The death penalty hasn’t been used in Nebraska since three men – Harold Otey, John Joubert and Robert Williams – were executed between 1994 and 1997. There is also the question of how such an execution could take place, as Nebraska, like Georgia, Oklahoma, and other states, has struggled to get the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections.