Nebraska: Electric Chair Is "Torture"

Judges Declare State's Only Death Penalty Procedure Is Unconstitutional

(AP)  A year ago, Carey Dean Moore wrote a short letter to the Nebraska Supreme Court from his cell on death row.

"Appellant wishes to be executed," it said.

On Friday, the court said electrocution is unconstitutional, a stunning response to Dean, nine others on death row and those who question whether the electric chair constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

"Condemned prisoners must not be tortured to death, regardless of their crimes," Judge William Connolly wrote in the 6-1 opinion for the court.

The decision erased Nebraska's distinction as the only state with electrocution as its sole means of execution. State courts are left with the ability to sentence people to death but no way to carry out the penalty.

The high court made the ruling in the case of Raymond Mata Jr., convicted for the 1999 kidnapping and killing of 3-year-old Adam Gomez of Scottsbluff, the son of his former girlfriend. Parts of the boy's body were found at Mata's home in a freezer and dog bowl. Bone fragments also were recovered from the stomach of Mata's dog.

The court said in its opinion that evidence shows that electrocution inflicts "intense pain and agonizing suffering" and that it "has proven itself to be a dinosaur more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein" than a state prison.

From the conclusion of State v. Mata:

"Mata’s sentence of death is affirmed. But under our system of government, while the Legislature may vote to have the death penalty, it must not create one that offends constitutional rights. We recognize the temptation to make the prisoner suffer, just as the prisoner made an innocent victim suffer. But it is the hallmark of a civilized society that we punish cruelty without practicing it. Condemned prisoners must not be tortured to death, regardless of their crimes.

"And the evidence clearly proves that unconsciousness and death are not instantaneous for many condemned prisoners. These prisoners will, when electrocuted, consciously suffer the torture that high voltage electric current inflicts on the human body. The evidence shows that electrocution inflicts intense pain and agonizing suffering. Therefore, electrocution as a method of execution is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Nebraska Constitution, article I, § 9. And, without a constitutionally acceptable method of execution, Mata’s sentence of death is stayed."

There are conflicting views on whether federal courts might agree to hear an appeal. Attorney General Jon Bruning said he would ask the state court to reconsider its decision, and spokeswoman Leah Bucco-White said, "We're exploring all our options."

Gov. Dave Heineman's spokeswoman, Jen Rae Hein, said Heineman is considering introducing a bill this legislative session to replace electrocution with lethal injection.

"Today the court has asserted itself improperly as a policymaker," Heineman said. "Once again, this activist court has ignored its own precedent and the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court to continue its assault on the Nebraska death penalty."

The state's high court said electrocution violated the Nebraska Constitution rather than the U.S. Constitution, a move that one expert on death penalty law said appeared to shield its decision from federal review. But Chief Justice Mike Heavican wrote in dissent that the majority's stated reliance on Nebraska's constitution is misleading because the court based its decision entirely on federal precedent.

The court stressed that its ruling did not strike down the death penalty - just electrocution as the method. Approving another method, however, could prove difficult.

Past attempts to replace electrocution with lethal injection in Nebraska have failed, largely due to the efforts of the Legislature's staunchest opponent of capital punishment, Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha.

Chambers pointed out Friday that a bill to replace the execution method would have to be approved by the Judiciary Committee. That's unlikely, he said, given that on Thursday the committee sent to the full Legislature a bill that would repeal the death penalty.

"It would be stupid and a waste of time and strictly for political purposes to introduce a bill to replace electrocution with lethal injection," Chambers said.

Last year, a state bill to repeal the death penalty failed after first-round debate by just one vote. Bills must go through three rounds before they get final approval.

Legal experts said it doesn't make sense for Nebraska to rush to establish a new method of execution.

Courts across the country have put off several executions pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed in September to hear a challenge filed by two Kentucky death row inmates over that state's lethal injection method.

The use of the electric chair began to decline when Oklahoma adopted lethal injection in 1977, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Since 1976, when executions resumed following a U.S. Supreme Court ban, there have been 154 electrocutions and more than 900 lethal injections, Dieter said.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia still allow electrocution, but some of those states do not allow newly condemned inmates to choose it.

The last person to be executed by electrocution was Daryl Holton on Sept. 12. in Tennessee. Holton, who confessed to murdering four children in 1997, chose the electric chair over lethal injection.

Moore was to have been electrocuted in May, but the Nebraska Supreme Court stopped it less than a week before his scheduled date because of the case it ruled on Friday.

Press writers Oskar Garcia, Josh Funk and Eric Olson in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report.

[erasmus6]

"dont get too exited..your fellow liberals already had that covered..they call it "cruel and unusual" punishment.." posted by libsrsissy

What is with this liberal c-r-a-p? Is everything about liberals? I am not a liberal.

[inventagod]

Electric Chair = torture

Waterboarding = fun

[erasmus6]

"murders" should read "murderers"

[erasmus6]

I''ve got it! They can build a huge prison but just make it one BIG room. Put all the felons in this room TOGETHER. No food, just water. I was going to say no water but we want them to live long enough to suffer for awhile, right? Not only will they starve to death but just think of all those murders together in one room. Just think if they had a "Hannibal" in there?

Anyways, this way here it ain''t costing the taxes payers anything to keep them. Once they are all dead they can be scooped out and incinerated.:)

YIKEYS, I think I just scared myself!

[kevzgrl]

Also, juwboy, if you want to be the one to pay to keep a murdering bas-**** like this in jail the rest of his un-natural life, then fine, but why should I have to??? MY money would be much better spent on a bullet or the electricity, or a little cyanide, come to that...

[kevzgrl]

To Juwboy: Did Adam''s bones and body parts just find their way into this maggot''s freezer and dog bowl (and stomach) on their own??? Just what kind of exoneration would there be in this case - there is NO justification for killing a child and feeding it to your dog - not no how, not no WAY!!! This piece of feces should have been dust a long time ago, but the appeals process kept him alive long enough for some idiot in a robe to say "OH, my, no - we can''t put him in that terrible electric chair. That''s CRUEL and INHUMANE"

[kevzgrl]

"that electrocution inflicts "intense pain and agonizing suffering"
And little 3 year-old Adam Gomez just got TICKLED to death, right? Honest to God, sometimes the idiots who sit on these courts that decide criminals have more rights than victims appear to have missed the boat somewhere - I would have paid for the electricity to shock Mata to death willingly...

[observer2020]

Does anyone have any hard statistics on exactly how many people are on death row AND already executed versus how many have been overturned due to new DNA evidence? I think that now that DNA testing is available for death row inmates: go through only one appeal (much less taxpayers $$$ spent or paid to the lawyers), check DNA for a match if already not done during trial, then execute the inmate. Quick and alot less expensive. Also, I agree with a previous posting about not making schooling, etc., available, nor making prison life so comfortable. Chain gangs and hard time is my vote. And the prisoner should be able to say how he/she wants to go out...hanging, electric chair, lethal injection, gas chamber, whatever. If they can''t make a decision, I''m sure family members would love to have a say. Our prisons are just training grounds for turning out better criminals.

[erasmus6]

"Does anyone know if they had to kill the dog to examine it''''s stomach contents for evidence? I hope not." posted by GrammaWhamma

They should be able to examine it''s poop and find out what they need to know. But of course that doesn''t mean they did.

[erasmus6]

"Now all we need on this message board is erasmus6 to tell us how much better it is in Canada." posted by stupidrules3

Ahhh, did you miss me?

It is of course better in Canada, we have less crime!

We do not have the death penalty but I personally believe that dying is too easy. They need to suffer. If they can''t be tortured well then the next best thing is prison. If getting it up the poop chute everyday is all it can be, then I figure it is better than nothing.

[erasmus6]

"Maybe it''''s torture because there is no HDTV in the room with cable." posted by rushlimpdrug

I think you could be right.

[erasmus6]

Posted by l8c6 at 03:32 PM : Feb 10, 2008

"Now, this one show promise." posted by klingon69

I think we can agree on this one.

[klingon69]

Gas them, store them like cattle in uninsulated sheds till they can be rounded up and machine gunned, dropped in a pit and buried or work them to death building equipment and ammunition for Blackwater. Have them assemble shells with depleted uranium tips. Hang and burn them in ovens. Have them catalogue and document all the spoils from Iraq till they are useless, then waste them and round up the next group to continue the task. Peel their tattoos from their hide and make lamp shades out of it. Nail their genitals to walls of their cell. Bust their jaws and hang them from the gang showers. Hang them to a pole in the prison court yard with their arms behind their back and beat their faces till their jaws drop, Hiel Hitler! Hiel right wing.
Posted by l8c6 at 03:32 PM : Feb 10, 2008
Now, this one show promise.

[tweedle02]

Oh my!! What heated Arguements from people concerning the death penalty!!! My main gripe with our judicial system has been the appeal process. The death row inmates have way too many appeals to go through before they are actually executed. I say Limit the appeals to two. If they are still found guilty of the crime committed, execute them. Do not let this drag on for years and years, and drain society of needed moneys. Death row needs to be cleaned out, but not before all avenues have been exhausted.

[juwboy]

marymcq said:

"The bible says ''An Eye for an Eye''"

How was "an eye for an eye" interpreted 2000 years ago under Jewish law?

Amazingly, accounts of about half a dozen cases have been handed down to us in the collection of Jewish folklore etc. known as the Talmud.

In every case, the law was not applied literally, but metaphorically. Compensation was paid to the victim in the form of goods and/or money.

In other words, "an eye for an eye" never gave someone the right for revenge in kind, it was interpreted as follows:

"If you injure me, not necessarily physically, then I am entitled to just compensation from you", which is the same as the law is applied in the US today.

In some states, you are not only entitled to actual damages, but also triple the amount in punitive damages, too i.e. FOUR eyes for an eye.

[juwboy]

jcadeckard said:

"I believe if you know you truly have the right individual then use the electric chair ..."

There''s a problem with this line of reasoning. You can never know you truly have the right individual. How many people on death row have been exonerated by scientific advances in DNA analysis in recent years, evidence that was not available at the time they were convicted? In all of those cases, the juries truly believed they''d convicted the right individuals.

Also, you cannot say you are more certain of the guilt of one condemned person over another because all of have been found guilty, rightly or wrongly, "beyond all reasonable doubt" and have to be treated equally under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

As I said previously, I have no problem with the concept of capital punishment, but only if the judicial system is perfect.

It isn''t.

[marymcq]

They say statistics show that the death penalty doesn''t deter horrific crimes, why? Because the government makes sure they use kid gloves with these animals, and that''s what they are, animals, this piece of ***, took an innocent 3 year old little boy, distroyed him, cut him to pieces then let his dog eat him. Supposedly we don''t want to make these animals suffer because if we do it makes us no better then they are, but that''s not so, we are not torturing a little innocent 3 year old, we are torturing a rabid animal, so I say So F--king what? I would gladly pull the switch on this scum bag but I''d probably have to wait in line behind the little boy''s mother and the rest of his family. Hasn''t that woman suffered enough? They should be more concerned with how this is going to effect her, not this creep who has no regard for life at all. The bible says "An Eye for an Eye"

[jcadeckard]

I believe if you know you truly have the right individual then use the electric chair who cares if they suffer they didn''t think of the suffering of their victims. Why should we care about treating prisoners special some of them do alot better in prison than people out of prison. They''re allowed to get an education while in prison and those who want an education that aren''t in prison can''t get any help from the government. How is that fair. I believe prisoners shouldn''t get any extras while in prison. Their in there because they commited a crime. It''s no wonder while we have so many prisoners. Some people once out of prison don''t know how to act so they do something to get put back in prison. We need to make prison life miserable enought that once they are released they would never want to go back.

[juwboy]

I have no problem, in principle, with the death penalty.

However, since the judicial system is imperfect, the death penalty offers no means of redress if an innocent person is found guilty, executed, and then exonerating evidence is subsequently found.

Life imprisonment allows for the possibility of correcting an erroneous guilty verdict in a capital case and the appropriate payment of compensation for time unnecessarily served.

You cannot revive a dead person if the original verdict is wrong.

[konabike]

Gas them all. All murdeous should drop dead and save our tax $$