Nebraska death penalty debate reignited after Tennessee execution

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 9 Oct, 00:48 · Archive

Nebraska has reinstated capital punishment but lacks the drugs to carry out executions.

Tennessee's botched execution by lethal injection of Christa Pike has put a spotlight on the death penalty across the United States, including in Nebraska where the issue has been contentious for decades.

Nebraska last executed someone in 1997, using an electric chair. In 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that method unconstitutional. Lawmakers then passed a bill to use lethal injection instead, but the state could not acquire the necessary drugs and its supply expired unused. In 2015, Nebraska lawmakers abolished the death penalty altogether, but voters reinstated it by ballot measure a year later. The state's only execution since then was Carey Dean Moore in 2018, using a never-before-tried four-drug cocktail including Valium and fentanyl.

Nebraska currently does not have lethal injection drugs in its possession. When asked whether Tennessee's failed execution gave him pause about Nebraska's system, Governor Jim Pillen replied that it did not.

How it is being reported

• Nebraska’s death penalty history amid national execution debateTennessee’s botched execution by lethal injection of Christa Pike has once again put a spotlight on the death penalty in the United States.WOWT · 9 Oct, 00:21
• Nebraska’s death penalty history amid national execution debateTennessee’s botched execution by lethal injection of Christa Pike has once again put a spotlight on the death penalty in the United States.1011Now · 9 Oct, 00:21

In this story: Nebraska · Tennessee · Christa Pike · Robert Williams · Carey Dean Moore · Jim Pillen · Texas

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