The Supreme Court in Nebraska recently ruled that death by electrocution in the State of Nebraska is cruel and inhumane and thus illegal in the State of Nebraska. This decision was a political decision by the court as much as anything because the legislature in Nebraska is currently debating whether the state should abolish the death penalty in Nebraska all together, and the Supreme Court of Nebraska chose now to weigh in on this debate to influence this debate and make no mistake on that.
The State of Nebraska is the only state in the country, I believe, that only offers electrocution as the method of death and I suspect the court is telling the Legislature that they need another method.
The State of Nebraska is probably indisputably one of the most conservative states in the union but their Supreme Court tends to be one of the most liberal leaning courts in the United States, far outside the views of the citizens of the state. It has always amazed me how justices that are appointed for life to enforce the Constitutions in the Federal System or the State Systems magically think they have a right to expound their personal beliefs on the rest of the citizenry because they are there to enforce the wording of the Constitutions only.
For me these courts don’t really effect me a lot because I tend to be more socially moderate and fiscally conservative in the Republican Party; I am a supporter of a woman’s right to choose, not because I support the process but because I don’t think it is the governments job to tell a woman they have to keep an unwanted pregnancies; those decisions should be left between a man and a woman, their families or support systems, and their God. I’m getting way of track here but I wanted you to understand my mindset .
Getting back to the State of Nebraska and the ruling by the Supreme Court in regards to the manner of death in an execution. The Supreme Court knows as I know that the United States Supreme Court will in all likelihood, like they have before, overrule their decision because the overwhelming evidence is to the contrary. If death by electrocution is carried out properly the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled it is not inhumane.
I have attended an execution in the past here in the State of Florida in my capacity as the arresting officer of the offender and I do have an opinion on electrocution, it is barbaric. I worked once a death of a young high school player that got struck by lightening while at practice and I doubt I will ever get that image out of my mind. I won’t even begin to tell you how horrific death by electrocution is on the body and my only solis is that death is instantaneous. The problem with electrocution as a method of death is that seldom do things go as they are planned. As long as man is involved there will always be mistakes, there will always be errors. I remember once that they bought the wrong sponges here in Florida and the sponges they bought were not natural and they caused the offenders body to explode into flames. Did they cause the offender to suffer? The final report said probably not but truly who knows, I don’t.
My point is that I think the Supreme Court of Nebraska is probably right on this issue but it was done more so to influence the debate in the Legislature which I believe the court has no business doing, it is not their job. I have become over the year much more anti-death penalty with my work on the State of Texas v. Michael James Perry because I have seen what can happen when untrustworthy and corrupt officials have control over life and death.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the State of Nebraska because as I have said I doubt the decision will stand when it goes to the United States Supreme Court but who knows, but it is an interesting debate none the less and it certainly is a debate that has been long overdue in this country.
