DaJudge
February 8th, 2008, 04:28 PM
Feb 8, 2:51 PM EST
Court: Neb. electric chair not legal
By NATE JENKINS
Associated Press Writer
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that
electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment, outlawing the electric chair
in the only state that still used it as its sole means of execution.
The state's death penalty remains on the books, but the court said the
Legislature must approve another method to use it. The evidence shows
that electrocution inflicts "intense pain and agonizing suffering," the court
said.
"Condemned prisoners must not be tortured to death, regardless of their
crimes," Judge William Connolly wrote in the 6-1 opinion.
"Contrary to the State's argument, there is abundant evidence that
prisoners sometimes will retain enough brain functioning to consciously
suffer the torture high voltage electric current inflicts on a human body,"
Connolly wrote.
Gov. Dave Heineman's spokeswoman, Jen Rae Hein, said he is considering
different options, including introducing a bill this legislative session to
replace electrocution with lethal injection. The session ends in April, but the
governor also could ask for a special legislative session later.
"I am appalled by the Nebraska Supreme Court's decision," Heineman said in
a statement. "Once again, this activist court has ignored its own precedent
and the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court to continue its assault on
the Nebraska death penalty."
The high court made the ruling in the case of Raymond Mata Jr., convicted
for the 1999 killing and dismemberment of 3-year-old Adam Gomez of
Scottsbluff, the son of his former girlfriend.
Investigators testified that parts of the toddler's body were found at Mata's
home in a freezer, a dog bowl and dog-food bag. Human bone fragments
also were recovered from the stomach of Mata's dog.
Nebraska Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown had argued for the state that the
legal standard a method of execution must meet is to minimize the risk of
unnecessary pain, violence and mutilation, not eliminate it. He said
electrocution meets that test.
But the high court said electrocution "has proven itself to be a dinosaur
more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein" than a state prison.
Jerry Soucie, Mata's attorney, said he was "really surprised the lengths they
went to lay out in detail what's wrong with electrocution."
Nebraska's last execution was in 1997. Ten inmates are on the state's
death row; one of them, Carey Dean Moore, was to have been electrocuted
in May but the state Supreme Court stopped it less than a week before his
scheduled date because of the case it ruled on Friday.
The court stressed that its ruling Friday did not strike down the death
penalty - just electrocution as the method. In fact, Mata's death sentence
was affirmed by the high court.
Making no mention of an appeal, Attorney General Jon Bruning issued a
statement saying "we'll now move to the legislative process to get a new
method of execution."
The Legislature's most staunch opponent of capital punishment, Sen. Ernie
Chambers of Omaha, has blocked attempts to strengthen the state's death
penalty laws. Opponents of the death penalty have hoped for years
electrocution would be deemed cruel and unusual, effectively leaving the
state without a death penalty.
Last year, a Nebraska bill to repeal the death penalty failed after first-round
debate by just one vote. Bills must go through three rounds before they get
final approval.
The use of the electric chair began to decline when Oklahoma adopted
lethal injection in 1977, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death
Penalty Information Center. As more states followed suit, it became more
difficult to justify the electric chair, he said.
While Nebraska is the only state with electrocution as its sole method of
execution, it is still an option or a backup method in nine other states:
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina,
Tennessee and Virginia.
All normally use lethal injection but have electrocution as an option if an
inmate chooses it or in case state courts rule lethal injection
unconstitutional, Dieter said.
Tennessee performed the country's most recent execution by electrocution
in September. Daryl Holton, who murdered four children, chose that method
over lethal injection.
Nebraska's high court said electrocution violated the Nebraska Constitution
rather than the U.S. Constitution, a move Dieter said appeared to shield its
decision from federal review.
"That should end it. Appeals can always be filed, but I think this will stand
and will not be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court because they don't
want to get into state courts interpreting their own constitution," Dieter
said.
Chief Justice Mike Heavican wrote in dissent that he did not think
electrocution was cruel and unusual, and that he believed federal courts
could take the case. He argued that the majority's stated reliance on
Nebraska's constitution is misleading because the court based its decision
entirely on federal precedent.
---
Associated Press Writer Oskar Garcia in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this
report
---
Court: Neb. electric chair not legal
By NATE JENKINS
Associated Press Writer
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that
electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment, outlawing the electric chair
in the only state that still used it as its sole means of execution.
The state's death penalty remains on the books, but the court said the
Legislature must approve another method to use it. The evidence shows
that electrocution inflicts "intense pain and agonizing suffering," the court
said.
"Condemned prisoners must not be tortured to death, regardless of their
crimes," Judge William Connolly wrote in the 6-1 opinion.
"Contrary to the State's argument, there is abundant evidence that
prisoners sometimes will retain enough brain functioning to consciously
suffer the torture high voltage electric current inflicts on a human body,"
Connolly wrote.
Gov. Dave Heineman's spokeswoman, Jen Rae Hein, said he is considering
different options, including introducing a bill this legislative session to
replace electrocution with lethal injection. The session ends in April, but the
governor also could ask for a special legislative session later.
"I am appalled by the Nebraska Supreme Court's decision," Heineman said in
a statement. "Once again, this activist court has ignored its own precedent
and the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court to continue its assault on
the Nebraska death penalty."
The high court made the ruling in the case of Raymond Mata Jr., convicted
for the 1999 killing and dismemberment of 3-year-old Adam Gomez of
Scottsbluff, the son of his former girlfriend.
Investigators testified that parts of the toddler's body were found at Mata's
home in a freezer, a dog bowl and dog-food bag. Human bone fragments
also were recovered from the stomach of Mata's dog.
Nebraska Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown had argued for the state that the
legal standard a method of execution must meet is to minimize the risk of
unnecessary pain, violence and mutilation, not eliminate it. He said
electrocution meets that test.
But the high court said electrocution "has proven itself to be a dinosaur
more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein" than a state prison.
Jerry Soucie, Mata's attorney, said he was "really surprised the lengths they
went to lay out in detail what's wrong with electrocution."
Nebraska's last execution was in 1997. Ten inmates are on the state's
death row; one of them, Carey Dean Moore, was to have been electrocuted
in May but the state Supreme Court stopped it less than a week before his
scheduled date because of the case it ruled on Friday.
The court stressed that its ruling Friday did not strike down the death
penalty - just electrocution as the method. In fact, Mata's death sentence
was affirmed by the high court.
Making no mention of an appeal, Attorney General Jon Bruning issued a
statement saying "we'll now move to the legislative process to get a new
method of execution."
The Legislature's most staunch opponent of capital punishment, Sen. Ernie
Chambers of Omaha, has blocked attempts to strengthen the state's death
penalty laws. Opponents of the death penalty have hoped for years
electrocution would be deemed cruel and unusual, effectively leaving the
state without a death penalty.
Last year, a Nebraska bill to repeal the death penalty failed after first-round
debate by just one vote. Bills must go through three rounds before they get
final approval.
The use of the electric chair began to decline when Oklahoma adopted
lethal injection in 1977, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death
Penalty Information Center. As more states followed suit, it became more
difficult to justify the electric chair, he said.
While Nebraska is the only state with electrocution as its sole method of
execution, it is still an option or a backup method in nine other states:
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina,
Tennessee and Virginia.
All normally use lethal injection but have electrocution as an option if an
inmate chooses it or in case state courts rule lethal injection
unconstitutional, Dieter said.
Tennessee performed the country's most recent execution by electrocution
in September. Daryl Holton, who murdered four children, chose that method
over lethal injection.
Nebraska's high court said electrocution violated the Nebraska Constitution
rather than the U.S. Constitution, a move Dieter said appeared to shield its
decision from federal review.
"That should end it. Appeals can always be filed, but I think this will stand
and will not be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court because they don't
want to get into state courts interpreting their own constitution," Dieter
said.
Chief Justice Mike Heavican wrote in dissent that he did not think
electrocution was cruel and unusual, and that he believed federal courts
could take the case. He argued that the majority's stated reliance on
Nebraska's constitution is misleading because the court based its decision
entirely on federal precedent.
---
Associated Press Writer Oskar Garcia in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this
report
---