Death penalty supporters submit signatures for referendum

Aug. 26, 2015, 5:29 a.m. ·

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Sen. Beau McCoy with death penalty supporters (Photo by Fred Knapp, NET News

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Supporters of Nebraska’s death penalty turned in what they hope are more than enough petition signatures Wednesday to put the issue on the ballot for voters to decide next year.


Standing in front of a pyramid of boxes filled with petitions, death penalty supporters said they had obtained 166,692 signatures. Under the state constitution, they need signatures from 10 percent of the state’s registered voters, or just under 114,000, to suspend the repeal of the death penalty passed by the Legislature last May.

Current State Treasurer and former Attorney General Don Stenberg said reaching that mark is significant. "First, it means the death penalty remains on the books for murders that are committed between now and November, 2016. Second, it means that the means to carry out sentences of those currently on death row remain in force and effect and those cases can move forward. And third, it removes a possible argument that repeal of the death penalty by the Legislature, had it gone into effect, would somehow affect those cases currently on death row," Stenberg said.

In an interview before the supporters’ press conference, Sen. Ernie Chambers, lead sponsor of the repeal bill, predicted that the Nebraska Supreme Court will not order any executions while a vote of the people is pending. "The Legislature expressed its intent that those on death row not be executed," Chambers said.

Sen. Beau McCoy, who co-chairs Nebraskans for the Death Penalty with Stenberg, paraphrased the inscription above the Capitol’s main entrance. "The salvation of the state is the watchfulness of its citizens," McCoy said. (The actual quotation is "The salvation of the state is watchfulness in the citizen.")

"The watchfulness of the citizens of Nebraska have spoken (in) the last few months, and now the people of Nebraska will get the opportunity to vote on this issue in November, 2016," McCoy continued.

But Matt Maly of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, affiliated with Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, professed to be undaunted by all the signatures that were being turned in.

"This just represents a vocal minority. The overwhelming majority of Nebraskans oppose the death penalty. We know that because it was everyday Nebraskans who were were pushing for the repeal in the Legislature," Maly said.

County officials will now verify the signatures. If there are enough to put the issue on the ballot, both sides promise educational campaigns.