USA - Nebraska. Analysis of Nebraska’s vote

Members of Nebraska’s unique unicameral legislature are elected on a nonpartisan basis, but the state’s voters lean strongly Republican, and 35 of the legislature’s 49 current members are registered Republicans. Though Omaha.com’s wording on the subject is ambiguous, it appears that 18 of those Republicans voted for the abolishment bill when it passed 32-19 on May 21, while 16 of them voted to override the veto Wednesday. The AP wrote earlier this month that the alliance of legislators voting for the ban includes “conservatives who oppose the death penalty for religious reasons, cast it as a waste of taxpayer money and question whether government can be trusted to manage it.” Not all conservative senators embraced the repeal. Minutes after the vote, Republican state Sen. Beau McCoy announced the formation of a campaign committee that will consider putting the issue on the statewide ballot in 2016. Senator Ernie Chambers, who has fought for decades to repeal the death penalty, addressed his fellow senators repeatedly. “I wish that I could say that it was my brilliance that brought us to this point, but this would not be true, and we all know it. Had not the conservative faction decided it was time for a change, there’s no way that what is happening today would be happening today,” he said. ‘There has been a confluence of individuals groups and circumstances that have put Nebraska on the threshold of stepping into history, on the right side of history.” The ten men still on Nebraska’s death row will remain there, though the state hasn’t executed an inmate since 1997. The legislation passed Tuesday will abolish Nebraska’s method of execution, essentially stopping the men’s sentence from being carried out.