USA - Nebraska. Senators rejected 31-7 a proposal to severely narrow the death penalty.

Senators rejected 31-7 a proposal to severely narrow who could receive the death penalty. The rejected amendment, offered by Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery, was based on a law recently passed in Virginia. It would have limited who qualifies for the death penalty only to those murderers whose crime was confirmed by DNA evidence, who confessed in a video recording or whose crime was caught on video. Avery said the recent case of the Beatrice 6, (see Jan. 26, 2009) in which DNA evidence exonerated 6 people years after they were convicted and imprisoned for a 1985 murder, is a reason to require conclusive proof before an execution. But State Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk said the amendment would have created a new, higher burden of proof for death penalty cases. "He's watching 'CSI.' There simply is not DNA evidence in every case," Flood said. "That is a fantasy you see on television."