Governor Pete Ricketts (R-Death Penalty Supporter) stated Nebraska has obtained one of the drugs to resume the death penalty, and the other two are being shipped.
The Unicameral is to debate LB-268 tomorrow; this is a bill to repeal the death penalty and alter sentences. The bill has support from both parties and passed its first reading with a veto-proof majority (but not a filibuster-proof majority) in April.
More below the orange prison concertina wire.
The deal for the drugs is very shady, and was reported in the New York Times here.
The distributor is a company in West Bengal.
Harris claims the drugs were sold as merchandise samples, and attempted to have the state surrender them. The Supreme Court threw out the case in 2012.
Both Huffington Post and FOX News Channel are reporting on the debate.
FOX notes the recent Pew Research study indicating a majority of Americans for the first time oppose the death penalty, while HuffPo reports on recent studies indicating the high cost of the death penalty versus life imprisonment.
Senator Ernie Chambers (I-Omaha) introduced LB268 - Eliminate the death penalty and change and eliminate provisions relating to sentencing, and has co-sponsors from both parties. Senator Chambers has sought to repeal the death penalty for forty years.
The last conservative-run state to repeal the death penalty was North Dakota in 1973. Six states (all liberal) have repealed it since 2007. Eleven states that have the death penalty have renounced using it, meaning in practice a majority of states no longer have it.
There are eleven people on death row; four have been executed since the resumption of executions in 1973.
Conservatives in Nebraska's Unicameral are arguing that the legal hurdles and cost make the death penalty an expensive proposition; liberals argue the death penalty is unevenly applied and risks executing innocent people. In a rare confluence, both arguments are being marshalled by supporters of the bill to overturn the death penalty.
The pro-life conservatives that oppose the bill argue that everyone on death row deserves to die.
Since my state governor is such a fan of killing people, perhaps he could go the route of Utah and introduce the firing squad. Heck, if he wants to go full-on barbarian, he could make attendance at executions mandatory and use a .50 calibre anti-aircraft gun, like North Korea did with its defence minister in April.
Or he could simply admit the death penalty is a barbarism that has been given up by civilised states and nations, and act like the pro-lifer he claims to be.
Thu May 14, 2015 at 10:51 PM MT: Note: My wife and I are off for a trip to Canada by Smart car to catch a plane to Germany for a conference, then a trip to Poland at the end of the month. On the way we'll stop at Mt. Rushmore. We'll be gone for over a month, so y'all will have to get along without me.
Edit: I corrected the name of the supplier and the distributor, which are the same company, a firm in West Bengal. I confused the names as two companies as the names are similar. The two firms are not the same company supplying the drug.